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Iforced my shaking legs to function, staggering forward and collapsing to my knees beside Genie. I couldn’t even see the Fear Dearg anymore. All I saw was my friend, lifeless on the ground. Hauling her into my arms, I shook her gently, willing my voice to work.

“Wake up, Genie!” I begged, unable to figure out how to breathe and speak at the same time. “Please, Genie. Please, please, please… you have to wake up. You’re okay, I know you are. You’re going to be okay. You have to be okay. You can’t be…” I couldn’t say it. “Genie, just open your eyes. Just tell me you’re all right. Genie… Genie!” I clutched her, staring into her vacant, slate gray eyes, expecting her to blink at any moment. She would blink. She would take a breath. She would be okay. She couldn’t be… gone. My head wouldn’t even contemplate it.

A soft, familiar voice broke the night air. “I… I didn’t mean te do that.”

Tears streaming down my face, I lifted my gaze from my limp best friend for as long as I could bear. There, standing where the Fear Dearg had been, was the man who’d kidnapped me. He might not have had a bandana covering half his face anymore, but it was undoubtedly him. Brown eyes had replaced the fiery red, one hand running anxiously through his dark curls. He had a handsome face, all rugged and chiseled, but he might as well have been a troll or a banshee. To me, there had never been anyone uglier than him at that moment. I didn’t know when he’d morphed back to his human form, and I didn’t care. He’d killed her.

I saw red. “You bastard! You evil bastard!” Laying Genie down as gently as my trembling hands could manage, I ran at my kidnapper like a woman possessed. My fists flew without hesitation, pummeling his chest, his face, his stomach, anywhere that I could land a blow. I felt him try to fight me off, his hands gripping my wrists, but my grief made me powerful. I wrenched free of him and pounded harder, blind with rage, and battered the living daylights out of him with everything I had. Blood trickled out of his nose and I felt my knuckles cracking, sending a jarring pain through my right hand, but I wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t even see through the stinging tears, but my fists never slowed. I couldn’t speak except to hurl the worst kind of expletives at him—sharp bursts of pure aggression, words I’d never used in my entire life.

“WHY?!” I screamed, driving my knee into his thigh. “Why? Why did you do this? You KILLED her, you evil son of a bitch!” He wasn’t doing anything to defend himself or fight back. I took advantage of his defenselessness and smacked my forehead into the bridge of his nose. Searing pain ricocheted through my skull, sending me staggering backward in a dizzy mess. His hand grabbed me around the arm, keeping me upright, but I wrenched away once again. I didn’t want him to touch me; he repulsed me. I didn’t want him anywhere near me, not unless he was in a body bag. A murderer like him wouldn’t get an ounce of my mercy. I couldn’t have stopped myself from beating the crap out of him, even if I was thinking straight.

“I didn’t mean te,” he repeated, ducking another blow to the face. “I’m sorry, Persephone. I… didn’t even know I could do that. I’d never… kill... I don’t know what happened.”

I glowered at him through foggy eyes, my head throbbing. “I’ll tell you what happened. You murdered my best friend, and I’m going to throw you off this friggin’ cliff if it’s the last thing I do!” I lunged for him again, but he twisted out of the way.

“It were an accident, I swear!” he protested as I whirled back to attack again. “I saw that fella over there meddlin’ with stuff, talkin’ to himself. I thought… he were the one who cursed me, ‘cause he seemed te know what he were lookin’ for. As soon as I had that thought, I lost it. I just lost it!”

“You think that’s an excuse for what you’ve done?” My face contorted into a mask of disgust as I leapt for his throat, intent on squeezing the life out of him. An eye for an eye might make the whole world blind, but I couldn’t have cared less. I wanted him to pay for what he’d done to Genie. I wanted him to suffer.

He managed to feint under my flailing hands and take a few steps back, his palms raised in surrender. “It weren’t my fault! It were yer kind what made me like this. I don’t have any control when I change into that thing. I’ve tried te control it, but nothin’ works!” He was pleading, his hands shaking. “I didn’t mean te hurt that girl. I’ve never wanted te kill a soul. That ain’t who I am. I really didn’t mean for this te happen. Please, I’m so sorry. Ye have te believe me.”

“I don’t have to do anything. And I’d say those jumper cables you tried to use on me show me exactly what kind of person you are!” I spat, ready to hurl myself at him again. Kicking the hell out of him gave me the vain hope that it might stop my heart from shattering into a billion jagged shards. Anything to avoid having to look back at Genie and face the truth. The longer I could keep venting my bitter grief at this asshole, the longer I’d be able to keep the lie going—that my best friend wasn’t dead on the ground, killed by his hand.

Just then, an arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me away from my kidnapper. I whipped around, coming face to face with Nathan’s devastated expression and teary eyes. His glasses had fogged, his face blotchy, his breaths coming in short, difficult gasps.

My fists beat his chest feebly. “Let me go, Nathan!”

“Go to Genie and keep talking to her. I know that sounds stupid, but… just trust me. Keep talking to her. It’s important,” he murmured, confusing me. Either this was a distraction technique, or he knew something I didn’t. He gave me a more urgent look. “I’ll deal with him, but you have to keep talking to her. She needs you to. I need you to.”

I finally looked at the sight my heart couldn’t bear. Genie, lying on the bench where Nathan must’ve moved her. A switch flipped inside me, all of the overwhelming fury draining out of me as I went toward her. Carefully, and with some difficulty, I pulled her upper body until she was in a sitting position and wrapped my arms around her, cradling her head against my shoulder.

“Please come back,” I whispered, the dam bursting open. I didn’t need Nathan’s insistence—I couldn’t help but talk to her, even if it was useless. Even if she couldn’t hear me anymore. Tears flooded my cheeks as I rocked her, a bestial howl of pain and despair growling out of my throat. “You still have eighty years, Genie. There are… so many things we’ve still got… to do. I can’t be a naughty old lady without you… You were at my side before I was even born. We have to go out of this world together, when we’re gray and we’ve… done everything together. You have to… live the life you want, like you said. So, just… come back, okay? Don’t go now. Not now.”

I buried my face in her shoulder and screamed until my lungs burned, unable to cope with the weight of it all. I covered her hair with my hands to try and stop her from getting wet. The storm that Genie had brought down on us with her Water ability knew how I felt. It hammered down its own mournful tears, drenching me to the bone. I liked to think it was still tinged with her Chaos, even if that wasn’t true.

“I don’t want to do this without you,” I whispered into her damp hoodie. “Don’t make me, Genie. My life doesn’t make sense if you’re not here. And you’ve still got to go on your first date with Nathan, so you can have that kiss you missed out on. You’re not allowed to leave before you’ve been in love. It’s not right. Please, just… wake up.” I smoothed down the back of her hair, my fingertips touching the hard silver of her Esprit. She felt so small and vulnerable in my arms, instead of the giant she’d been in life.

My heart hurt, like someone was twisting a knife in my chest. This couldn’t be happening. No, this had to be one of Leviathan’s messed-up dreams, intended to test me. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to clear my mind, hoping that I would be the one to wake up when I opened them. But when I did, nothing had changed. My best friend still lay dead in my arms. I could endure a lot of things, but not this. Never this. We’d only just spoken about the long lives we might have, and the love she desperately wanted. It was too cruel to take her away after that, her hopes and dreams and life unfulfilled.

Leviathan? Can you hear me? I made a last-ditch effort, prepared to sell my soul to the devil if it meant she could live. He’d said that the telepathic pathway tended to open between our minds when I was in a moment of heightened emotion. If he couldn’t feel this pain an ocean away, then he had to have been lying.

I am sorry, my Persephone, his voice reverberated in my head, confirming the emotional connection. I know what you intend to ask. It is not something I can give. I can offer comfort, nothing more. It is a shame. I was fond of her.

His words shattered what little hope I had left. Then what good are you? I snapped. If you can’t help, I don’t want to hear from you. You’ve got no right to feel what I’m feeling.

Very well. I will go, he said sadly. But I will be here if you need me. When it feels like too much to bear, let me take some of the weight.

I ignored him, putting all of my energy into holding my friend, and soon felt his presence fade away. I couldn’t accept that she was gone. So, I just sat there and wailed, hugging her close.

“I really didn’t mean te,” my kidnapper said to Nathan, though I was barely listening. In truth, I had no idea how Nathan was able to face that bastard without beating him to a pulp. I might’ve lost my best friend, but Nathan had lost the woman he cared about, and his chance to confess his feelings to her. We were both in the same painful, sinking ship. “It were ye, spyin’ with that magic thing.”

“I had nothing to do with your curse,” Nathan said. “We were actually trying to find out what happened to you, and then you go and do this.” I heard the venom in his voice. “You took her from me. You are fortunate that I understand what a curse like this could do to a person’s control, otherwise I’d be picking up where Persie left off.”

“I need te go,” the kidnapper gasped. “I think… I’m about te turn again.”

“Don’t you dare,” Nathan barked, raising his hands to unleash a spell. “You killed her, and you tortured her friend. You’re going to face punishment for both.”

The kidnapper shook his head. “I don’t want te hurt anyone else.” He turned to me and I glared back, hating the sight of him. “I know it’s not enough, but… I really am sorry. I wish I could take it back. And I know I don’t deserve it, but please… forgive me.” Nathan launched a flurry of sparks at him, but he was one step faster. He dodged the attack and turned tail, sprinting off through the bushes where he vanished while still in human form. I didn’t know whether to be glad or livid, but one thing was for sure: he wasn’t going to escape justice, not if I had anything to do with it.

Still holding Genie close, I watched Nathan walk toward us. His head hung and his shoulders slumped, such that I couldn’t make out the expression on his face. But I could read his body language and felt the pain in every step he took. As he rounded the bench and came closer, he knelt on the sodden ground and looked up at me. His eyes were ringed with red.

“Can you stand for a moment?” he said quietly. “Lay her down.”

Puzzled, I squinted back at him. “Why?”

“You’ll see,” he said shortly. “I want you to know, Genie, before I do this, that I didn’t mean to keep it from you,” he murmured, as though I wasn’t there at all. “It’s not something I’m proud of, but I can’t… let you go. When I first saw you, I knew I was in trouble of the best kind. You were like a lighthouse in a storm—so bright and bold and fearless and unapologetically yourself. I refuse to let your light go out. And it’s not just because I didn’t get the chance to tell you how I feel. You are needed in this world, Genie. So, I’m going to be like you for a moment—I’m going to be braver and bolder, and I’m going to be who I am, without apology.”

What is he talking about? I opened my mouth to ask, but his actions stopped me. Slowly, he placed his hands on Genie—one on her abdomen, one on her chest. He closed his eyes, and a moment later tendrils of violet light slithered out from his palms, diving into Genie’s skin with a life of their own. I gaped in shock as her veins lit up, pulsing purple, the Chaos coursing through her at breakneck pace, churning up the pathways of her stilled blood. It branched up her neck and across her face until it reached her eyes. The pupils of her open, blank eyes flared with a violet glow that instinctively made me step back.

“Please,” Nathan whispered, as brighter tendrils thrummed out of his hands and into Genie. Eventually, her entire body glowed with a halo of purple, flecked with misty strands of black.

He can’t be… I remembered the pixies talking about their former Necromancy abilities, flashing purple cuttlefish spots at me so I’d understand what they were referring to. The ability was frowned upon in magical society, though it couldn’t be banned outright thanks to the executive order that Davin had drawn up during the Atlantis conflict. But it was also a rare enough ability that most magicals went their whole lives without ever meeting a Necromancer. My mom had told me many years ago that there were only a handful left in the world, and they tended to keep to themselves for fear of being stigmatized.

Suddenly, an explosion of purple and black erupted from Genie’s chest. Her body heaved upward, like Nathan had charged her with 300 volts on a defibrillator. And then… a sound that would stay with me for the rest of my natural life. A sharp, gasping intake of breath. My jaw dropped as Genie blinked rapidly, the purple light fading slowly from her eyes and body, retreating down the veins it had invaded.

“G-Genie?” I struggled to find my voice, shock and awe overwhelming my senses.

She sat bolt upright, confusion and horror written across her face. “What… just happened?” She stared at Nathan, who swayed slightly. He managed to reach out for her, taking hold of her hand with shaky fingertips for a moment, before he dragged himself to his feet.

“I need to excuse myself,” he apologized, taking a puzzle box from his jacket pocket. “I feel a Purge coming on.”

As he wandered off into the nearby trees, I launched myself at my best friend, wrapping her up in the tightest embrace I could muster. I had never known relief and gratitude like this. Here she was, in my arms, blinking and panting and struggling to figure out what was going on. Her chest rose and fell against mine. Such a small movement, yet more impactful than an earthquake.

“You’re alive,” I gasped. “Thank Chaos, you’re alive! I thought you were gone… I thought you were never coming back.”

“Gone?” Genie pulled back slightly. “Did I… die?”

I nodded, tears of joy replacing the sad ones. “You don’t remember?”

“I remember that misty bastard. And I know he hit me with something that burned like a biatch, but then… I don’t know what happened. Everything went black for a while and I was, sort of… floating around somewhere. I don’t know where.” She knitted her brows together in concern. “But… if I died, how am I alive again?” She shook her limbs out. “My body feels all weird and tingly.”

Just then, Nathan re-emerged from the trees, clutching a glowing puzzle box. Whatever he’d Purged, he’d caught it, but I could tell that what he’d done had taken a serious toll on him. He looked pale and weak, wobbling a bit as he walked toward us. Evidently, resurrection required a truckload of power, and Nathan was now running on fumes. But, as he lifted his gaze toward us, his face crumpled with relief. A gasp escaped his throat and I thought he might collapse under the weight of what he’d managed to do, but he kept his balance and staggered closer, his eyes never leaving Genie.

“You should ask him.” I nodded toward him.

Genie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I think there’s something you need to tell us.” I tried to meet Nathan’s overwhelmed gaze, to point out the obvious, but his focus was unwavering on Genie. Thanks to him, I had a very confused, but very much alive best friend back in my arms. And, while I would be eternally grateful for that, there was one almighty question that needed answering. Why had he kept this a secret from us? If I’d known he was capable of bringing people back from the dead, he might’ve spared my knuckles and a whole reservoir of tears. Clearly, there was something else going on. But what? What could be so bad that he couldn’t reveal the truth to the woman he adored, and someone I hoped he thought of as a good friend?

Whatever it is, he risked it all to save Genie… Realization dawned and my heart swelled for this man, almost enough to forgive him for putting me through hell without an explanation. When it came down to it, he’d had to make a choice between keeping his secret and saving her. If news got out that he was a Necromancer, everyone would look at him differently, hitting him with the social stigma that came with that ability. He’d had no time to plead for secrecy first. He’d acted, fully aware of what the implications might be if Genie needed treatment post-resurrection.

Oh, Nathan… As if we would ever tell a soul.