Page 134 of Never Invite a Vampire to Dinner

“But two million people would say it for you.”

“Yes.”

He is quiet for a moment.

“Chloe said something to me last week that I didn’t like.”

“I imagine she said several.”

“She did. But one of them stuck.” He turns the cup around. “She said finding out isn’t the same as telling.”

I don’t say anything.

“I still don’t know if I agree with that as a rule.”

“Maybe it isn’t a rule.”

“That’s what Volkov said.”

“Julian. His name is Julian.”

Something in Rowan’s face shifts.

“Julian,” he says.

“Thank you.”

He picks up his coffee.

“I’m still going to do the town.”

“Six mysteries?”

“Five mysteries and one episode about why an entire town spent three weeks lying to me without technically saying a single untrue thing.”

I grin.

“Mabel’s going to love that.”

“Mabel Libby is terrifying.”

“Correct.”

He gets as far as the door before he stops.

“For what it’s worth,” he says, “I don’t think I’m letting him off.”

“No?”

“No. I think I’m choosing not to turn a man into a puzzle just because I know how.”

Then he goes. I stand behind my counter for a long time after the door closes. Finding out is not the same as telling. Maybe it isn’t a rule. Maybe there isn’t one. Maybe there are only people, and choices, and the question of what you do with something once you know it.

But Rowan Pierce knows. Mabel knows. Arthur knows. I know.

And Julian is still sitting at the end of my counter.

CHAPTER 27