by Amy Plum
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 made them fall in love with the books before even reading a word.
As with the first two books, Claudia Depkin, friend and tireless beta reader, read every single word of If I Should Die. Several times. And gave me the support, encouragement, and feedback I needed to keep me centered and motivated. You were a huge part of this series, Claudia, and I’m so grateful.
Thanks and love to Kim Lennert for listening to me read the manuscript out loud as she drove me from New York to Lexington, Kentucky, to Birmingham, Alabama, to Nashville, Tennessee, on my Revenant Road Trip book tour. A girl could never wish for a truer friend.
I am much indebted to copyeditors Valerie Shea and Melinda Weigel. Without their continued corrections, If I Should Die would be embarrassingly jam-packed with mistakes. From fixing my scary punctuation to pointing out that people don’t wear heavy coats in July, they have made Die for Me a series I can be proud of. And thank you to all of my friends and readers for the enthusiasm, support . . . and forgiveness for leaving you hanging for an entire year after Until I Die’s monumental cliff-hanger ending. I told you everything would turn out in the end.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
AMY PLUM spent her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, her twenties in Chicago and Paris, and several more years in London, New York, and the Loire Valley. Now she lives in Paris and swears she’ll never move again. IF I SHOULD DIE is the final book in a trilogy about revenants that began with DIE FOR ME and UNTIL I DIE. You can visit Amy online at www.amyplumbooks.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
ALSO BY AMY PLUM
Die for Me
Until I Die
Die for Her: A Die for Me Digital Novella
BACK AD
CREDITS
Cover design by mecob.org
Cover illustration by Johanna Basford
Cover photographs:
© Jupiterimages/Getty Images (figure)
© Ian Cumming/Getty Images (background)
COPYRIGHT
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
If I Should Die
Copyright © 2013 by Amy Plum
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Plum, Amy.
If I should die / Amy Plum. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Sequel to: Until I die.
Summary: “The Parisian revenants have been betrayed by their trusted ally, Violette. Now Vincent is dead and Violette has destroyed his body so that he cannot be reanimated. Refusing to give up on her love, Kate searches for a way to reincarnate him in time to prevent an all-out war between the bardia and the numa.”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-06-200403-1 (hardcover bdg.)
Epub Edition © MARCH 2013 ISBN 9780062209245
[1. Supernatural—Fiction. 2. Love—Fiction. 3. Paris (France)—Fiction. 4. France—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.P7287If
20132012038120
[Fic]—dc23
CIP
AC
* * *
13 14 15 16 17 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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