"I promise, too," Gene says, and kisses him gently. "By whatever power I have, I promise I'll stick around. Besides," he says with a bit of a grin, "I've been here almost the longest out of anyone. Keeliai's tried hard to shake me off, and it hasn't yet. I'm not going anywhere without you."

What he doesn't say is I'm bad luck to know, everyone I get close to disappears, and I want to make sure that doesn't happen to you, too.