“Maybe you will someday. After you’ve punished yourself enough.”
He put his hands into the sleeves of his robe and walked slowly, looking first at her and then back at the roses. “I think the Gatherer took her with it when it was destroyed. That she has no being, anywhere. I no longer sense her. She’s gone, completely gone. As if she had never even existed.”
“No, she’s not gone,” Buffy said. She took her hands in his. “I’m here.”
Kit Bothwell looked at her, and for the first time since India’s final sacrifice, he smiled.
“Maybe it’s love, and not some primal force of supernatural strength, that keeps the legacy of the Slayer going,” he said softly. “Because I feel great love for you, Buffy, not as a man loves a woman—as I loved India—but as a living being who needs saving from the dark. And who recognizes in you something that cares so much that you will protect all of us until you die.”
The tears streamed down his face. “If that’s not a legacy . . . something she passed on to you, and that never dies, then what is it?”
“Just call it Buffy.” She smiled back. “For now.”
This is the Book that is called Les Livres des Quatres, the Book of Fours. Much has been spoken about the stories that went on after this Book was shut. Of the quest by the Three to find India, of the Water. Of the constant yet humorous discord between Kendra, of the Earth, and Faith, of the Fire, whose Slaying styles could not be more in opposition.
Of their leader, Buffy, who, moved by love, resolved that she would not die until India was found, and freed.
But that is for another Book.
This one has told its Tale.
* * *
The Watcher of the Fifth, as told to Nancy Holder.
About the Author
Nancy Holder is the award-winning, Los Angeles Times–bestselling author of forty-two novels and more than two hundred short stories, articles, and essays. She has won four Bram Stoker Awards for her supernatural fiction, including Best Novel for Dead in the Water. Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages. With her frequent collaborator, Christopher Golden, she has written many Buffy projects, including The Sunnydale High Yearbook, The Watcher’s Guide, Vol. 1, and Immortal. Her solo Buffy-Angel efforts include The Evil That Men Do and Not Forgotten. She is currently finishing the first Buffy-Angel crossover novels with Jeff Mariotte and the official Angel companion with Jeff Mariotte and Maryelizabeth Hart.
Holder is an avid swimmer and lifelong horror aficionado. A native Californian, she lives in San Diego with her brilliant and beautiful daughter and their intrepid dog Dot.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
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First Simon Spotlight Entertainment edition June 2005
First Simon Pulse edition August 2002
First Simon Pulse paperback edition February 2002
Originally published in hardcover in 2001 by Simon Pulse
ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-1241-4
ISBN-10: 0-7434-1241-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-5344-2948-2 (ebook)