"I'm scared too," Dan answers, the snow swirling around them, his heart thudding against Marcus's chest. "I was scared when we fought Rose and the True, and and I'm scared now. Only way to really be brave, isn't it?"

He could do it now, he thinks, a vague spinning feeling coming to him already.

Dan holds it off. He's made promises, he's made promises about when this moment came. Breaking them seems like a mistake, not just in their relationship, but the larger fight. "I've seen the human soul," he whispers, "with my own eyes. Seen hungry things swallow it down. Please don't make me watch it happen to yours. I love you, I trust you. You'll come back for me, and I will be easy to find."