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One inexplicable thing at a time.

The area all around us continued to thrive. Perfectly green grass, clear air, clear water…it looked like thelivingworld, not the dead one.

“What have we done here?” I wondered aloud, my voice hushed as I bent to pick a flower with pale blue petals.

Aleksander studied it all for a minute before commenting: “Nothing is glowing.”

“And nothing is out of control.”

“Or dying.”

“It just…is.”

He frowned, pacing the area and inspecting parts of it closer before he said, “It’s balanced. It looks like the living world.”

I shook my head, even though I agreed. Itfeltbalanced. Like it had always been here, and always would be. “But it’s wrong, isn’t it?” I asked, crushing the flower in my palm. “This world is not supposed to bealive. And…” I looked to the girl in his arms, my words catching painfully in my throat.

And neither is she.

I continued to explore, searching every tuft of grass and velvety flower petal for some sign that this was a mirage—one that would dissipate as soon as we came to our senses.

The girl seemed to have fallen asleep, but her breathing was peaceful and even, her cheeks a rosy shade of pink. Aleksander continued to hold her, his eyes scanning for threats in every direction.

After a minute, he said, “I think I hear someone coming.”

“The rest of our group must have heard something, or seen our magic working…” I grimaced. “And I wonder how much attention we’ve drawn from the guards along the walls of Erebos?”

“Too much, knowing our luck.”

Phantom bounded into sight first, racing toward me only to abruptly stop as he caught a more interesting scent; his nose lifted in Aleksander’s direction, sniffing fervently, and then he cautiously trotted over to the king and poked his nose against the bundle in his arms.

(Another living being has joined you,) he said, matter-of-factly.(She smells like apples.And dirt.)

She should smell like nothing, I started to reply.A ghost shouldn’t have a scent.

But, as before, my words caught in my throat. Hearing Phantom acknowledge her made it all seem much more real, somehow; I stopped trying to shake off the mirage and instead tried to think of what the hell I was going todoabout it all.

Zayn arrived a moment later, flanked by Rowen and Farren, and Thalia emerged from the trees soon after. Zayn stopped as abruptly as Phantom had at the sight of Aleksander and the girl, tilting his head with a mixture of amusement and bewilderment dancing in his eyes.

“Of all the trouble I expected you two to be getting into,” he said, “this was definitelynoton the list.” He looked closer at the girl and the king, studying the spectacle from several different angles before he said, “But congratulations on your adoption, I guess?”

Aleksander scowled, moving toward his cousin as if to drop the child into Zayn’s arms…an attempt that proved futile, as the girl woke up with the sudden movement and only clung tighter to his neck. It might have been entertaining—adorable, even—under different circumstances.

Thalia circled Aleksander cautiously, as if he held a snarling wolf rather than a feeble child. “A living girl? Where on earth did she come from?”

Aleksander and I exchanged an uncertain glance.

Thalia’s gaze was insistent and borderline threatening as it fell on me; the truth once again seemed like the safest option.

“...She wasn’tlivingjust a few minutes ago,” I said.

Thalia’s face went through several different emotions—confusion, alarm, disbelief, fear—before finally settling into her usual hard, stoic expression.

I started to explain myself further, but the sound of loud voices and approaching footsteps reached us first.

Thalia immediately brought her finger to her lips, cutting me off. “Say nothingof what you did for this girl.” Her eyes were a touch wild. “Nothing. Understood?”

“I…yes—of course.”