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The magick around me was blinding, but I shoved it down inside of me temporarily to get a bigger look at our troublemaker. I’d seen souls murdered in the most heartless, heinous of ways; enough to make hundreds of the ‘horror’ movies that were so popular up above. It was my job to keep things in order and moving along down here, and that included seeing souls as they arrived—nearly decapitated, beaten into pulps, old and gray, and even innocent children with wide, terrified eyes.

None of it ever affected me. It couldn’t.

But something about seeing my little sprig of witch hazel lying there, her throat collapsed and mottled with black and blue, filled me with absolute rage.

“S-strangulation.” I had to clear my throat to get it out.

What was happening? This was one death in a multitude of deaths—one drop of water in the vast, unending sea. There have been millions before, and there would be millions after her.

Panic and adrenaline raced through my body, my hands shaking. My grip on the magick slipped and it coursed through me, caressing my own magick like a long-lost friend.

Or lover.

Or...something else.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I was Pride. I didn’t have emotions. I didn’t get tangled up in petty human drama. That was why I’d been given this task. Only I could handle it.

Pride would never stoop to love, my brothers had joked.He is perfect for the job that never stops.

But this Witch Hazel had stopped me; right in my tracks.

I sent the magick back into her in a whirlwind, uncaring how against the book this all was.

“R-reanimation. Did you get it?” I snapped at Janine, whirling around so I didn’t have to look at my Witch Hazel as her body writhed and twitched, accepting the magick back into her flesh.

“Y-yeah. Reanimation. When?”

The air around settled and went quiet, a few sacred seconds of complete silence before the souls began encroaching back toward us, sensing the danger was over.

I grit my teeth.

“Now.”

Janine sputtered, nearly dropping her clipboard.

“But we need?—”

“Now.”

I held out my hand and Witch Hazel’s magick eagerly leaped toward mine, embracing it. I used that against it, letting it mesh and build up with my own.

Then I pushed her back to her own world.

“Goodbye, Witch Hazel.”

She screamed and disappeared back to the land of the living.

Chapter

Three

HAZEL

My fingers twitched against packed earth, the movement so small it was barely there. Wrong. Everything felt wrong. The weight pressed down, surrounding me, and filling every space. My chest burned for air, but I couldn't expand my lungs against the crushing pressure.

Where...?