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Was he disappointed she looked different? A little, only because he struggled to register her as the female he’d chosen, the one he’d fallen in love with.

He’d adored every part of her, from her freckles, her scars, and even the sorrow in her sometimes haunted, far-away stare.

“What you see here is a memory,” Weldir explained, causing Ingram to stray from viewing Emerie to give him his full attention. He was headless, making it impossible to see his expression. “I bring the souls here and link them to their strongest bonds, allowing them to play out their fondest memories together. It brings them peace, and it stops them from...screaming.”

Weldir shuddered so violently that his entire essence dispersed. It coalesced into random parts of him swiftly, leaving him like a silk cloth, twirling and floating to reveal different parts of his body and limbs. It was less than before, thinner and becoming harder to see.

Learning this lessened the burning betrayal that had started to singe him. It wasn’t that she did not care for him, she was just lost in her own past – one which he hadn’t been a part of yet.

Ingram swiped his hand through her spirit once more.“If I cannot speak with her, how am I to ask her to be my bride?”

“Here, I can help!” Aleron exclaimed, bouncing forward with his hand out.

“I wouldn’t do that,”Weldir stated, but it was too late.

Ingram paused to watch as his kindred placed his large hand over her entire head from the side. Emerie paused her walking next to the stranger, freezing up completely like she was waking up to reality. Then she turned, looked up at Aleron towering over her with his menacing, clawed hand out, and let out a horrible shriek.

She yanked her companion forward, who slammed into Aleron’s chest, and also seemed to awaken from a trance. The human male gave a roar and practically fell backwards on top of Emerie, who had tripped over her own feet.

For a split second, both had been utterly naked until clothing wrapped around their bodies out of thin air with a puff of smoke. Emerie’s features returned to the ones he knew, her scar lifting to the surface like growing ash.

Aleron yelped in surprise and backed up while lowering himself to the ground.

“What the fuck is that?!” the male shouted, while pointing at Aleron’s bony face.

None of the other spirits nearby noticed anything happening, despite the commotion. They even walked through Emerie and her panicked companion crumbled against the ground.

She stared at Aleron, her chest heaving up and down, before it began to eventually settle. She blinked, looked up, down, and then around. Her gaze fell on Weldir, and her eyes widened in disbelief.

“Where am I?” she asked before bringing her stare back to Aleron. It was like she hadn’t seen Ingram at all. “You’re... you’re a Duskwalker.” She groaned while gripping her forehead. “One minute I was at the castle, then I was talking to...”

Her features stilled, and she darted her head to the right while leaning back. Then the brightest smile he’d ever seen upon her face shined from her as she squealed and threw herself at the human male.

“Gideon!” she shouted, wrapping her arms around his neck as she tackled him to the ground. She stopped caring about Aleron’s presence, or even Weldir’s, as she began to joyfully weep. “Oh my god, Gideon. I never thought I’d see you again.”

“What are you doing?” Gideon asked, one of his arms coming around her waist as he picked them both up off the ground. “The hell you clinging to me for when there’s a Duskwalker there? We need to run.”

Emerie laughed through her tears. “Because you can’t die twice, and running from a Duskwalker isstupid,” she giggled as she held onto him and stopped whatever attempts he tried at getting them to run.

“Die twice?” His fear dropped away, replaced by a moment of speechlessness before he continued. “That night... the Demon.”

“Yes. You died.”

“How long ago?”

“Eight years,” she answered.

His features grew even more bewildered as he turned a wide stare to the ground in thought. He even loosened his hold on her.

As much as he wanted to give her this reunion, Ingram selfishly wanted his own.

“Emerie?”Ingram softly called as he sidestepped to the left so he could, hopefully, come into view. He held his breath, wondering if she would even be able to see him or sense his presence at all.

Gideon snapped his face in Ingram’s direction and squeezed Emerie as he backed away. Emerie’s face pulled away from Gideon’s neck with her lips parting on a gasp, her eyes widening. She darted that shocked expression to Ingram, and the moment her gaze connected with his own, his worries waned.

“Ingram!” she squealed, evenlouderthan she had for Gideon. She even shoved the man to the ground to get him off her so she could fling herself with arms open at Ingram.

“Wait,”he rasped, backing up a step.