I Should Die

across his skin, closing his eyes as he savors my touch. He locks my hand in his and we begin walking.
    As we approach the river, the sky lightens from velvety black to the steel gray of predawn. We cross the street to walk along the quay above the rippling surface of the water. “Look at where we are,” I say, and nod toward the Île Saint-Louis in the middle of the river just across from us.
    The tree-lined terrace where we sat and talked last summer juts out into the waves, parting the Seine into two rivers that skirt either side of the island. Two parallel rivers that reunite at the far tip of the Île de la Cité, once again becoming one.
    I stop walking and Vincent peers at me, a hundred questions in his eyes. “Can you tell me what you’re thinking about?” I ask.
    He looks out over the water. “I was so afraid when you were in that arena with Violette,” he says with a tremor in his voice. “When she stabbed you, it felt like I was being stabbed. I wanted to protect you. And then for the first time I realized that even if she killed you, you would come back. As long as I kept your body away from the fire you would reanimate. That you were like us now—like me. It felt like a revelation.”
    “But you’ve known that for days,” I say.
    “I know. But it hadn’t really sunk in until I saw you there, facing death.”
    “And the fact that I’m like you now makes you feel different about me?”
    “Yes.”
    A stab of apprehension makes me look away toward the water. “Do you think it will be a problem for us?”
    “No, Kate. You don’t understand,” Vincent says, resting his hands very carefully on my shoulders. “My feelings for you aren’t different. But everything else is. Like I said, what happened to you is something I never hoped for. I don’t want you to bear the burden of life as a revenant. I don’t want to see you subjected to our fate—the obsession, the craving, the pain of injury and death.”
    He brushes back a wisp of hair that has escaped my ponytail. “But what I want doesn’t matter. It is your destiny. Now you’re here. Now you’re one of us. And now that we are well on our way to destroying our enemies—thanks to you—there’s nothing standing in our way.
    “I’m being given my heart’s desire, and I just don’t know what to do with it. I’m almost afraid to believe it’s true, in case someone shakes me and tells me I’m dreaming.”
    “It’s not a dream. I’m here with you,” I say. “For what looks like a really long time.”
    Over Vincent’s shoulder an orange glow burns the edge of the sky. I take a step closer, until there is no space left between us and my chest touches his.
    And as we kiss, the sun breaks over the horizon and sets the river on fire, its waves flickering an incendiary red in the first light of dawn.
    Life changes so quickly. Not long ago I was mourning the death of my parents and wondering if I could make it through another day. Now I have been handed eternity. And not on a silver platter, either, but down a path lined with pain and bloodshed.
    But I will walk it with my kindred. With this boy I love. Together we will do something worthy and good. We will give our lives for others. Over and over again.
    I don’t have answers to all the questions that lie before me. But Vincent and I have time to figure them out. All the time in the world.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    ONCE AGAIN, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MY EDITOR extraordinaire Tara Weikum for her guidance with this book, as well as her unending patience as I struggled through it. Much gratitude to my fabulous team at HarperTeen: Chris Hernandez, Christina Colangelo, and Casey McIntyre. I was truly lucky to have them on board, supporting the final book in the series.
    I am endlessly thankful for my UK Little, Brown/Atom team, who have done an amazing job with the promotion of my books in the UK. Thanks especially to Sam Smith, Rose Tremlett, Maddy Feeny, and Kate Agar for their enthusiastic support.
    My super-agent Stacey Glick loved this project enough to find the perfect home for it and to cheer me along the whole way. And Laurent E. Abramo has done a bang-up job of finding homes for the Die for Me series in so many foreign countries and languages. Merci, Dystel & Goderich!
    For the third time, Mark Ecob and Johanna Basford have worked their magic with the cover. I couldn’t have wished for a more beautifully packaged series, and my readers never tire of telling me how the gorgeous covers