Page 76 of Necromance

My breath caught.

I stared at the light, the way it flickered across her face, soft and warm.

Hope, wild and reckless, rushed through me.

“I can bring you back,” I whispered, cradling her tighter.

The curse wouldn’t break. I wouldn’t be freed, but Mia would live… and I would make that trade a thousand times.

I gently unclasped the necklace from her neck, my fingers shaking. The locket pulsed brighter as if it knew what was coming.

I pressed it over her heart, directly above the place that I had destroyed.

“Come back to me,” I begged, voice raw. “Please, Mia, take it. Take what is yours.”

The light flared, blinding gold and for a moment, I felt her soul move.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

Everything was dark.

There was warmth somewhere far away, like sunlight through water. A voice too–low, rough, desperate. It was calling to me, begging.

Come back to me.

Lucien.

I fought toward it, toward him, toward the sound of my name wrapped in that voice. My chest felt heavy, tight, then it burned. A blinding, searing light surged through me, and I breathed.

Gasped.

My eyes flew open.

Stone ceiling, flickering light, warmth around me… strong arms holding me tight.

“Lucien?” I rasped.

He jerked back, staring down at me like he didn’t dare believe it. His face… his face was a wreck. Eyes brimmed red, jaw clenched, blood on his hands…

My blood…

“Mia,” he choked out. “You’re… you’re here.

He pulled me flush against him, holding me so tightly that it pushed the air from my lungs.

“I thought I lost you,” he breathed against my hair. “I thought… I thought I killed you.”

I pulled back just enough to look at him, my brows furrowing. “What happened?”

He cupped my face as if it might vanish, searching my eyes. “Serena possessed you. I didn’t know it was you… I used the dagger. Mia, I am so sorry.”

The memory came back to me then. The wraith, my magic draining me. Serena had done it on purpose. It had been her plan all along to exhaust me enough so she could take my body.

“You brought me back,” I whispered.

His hand hovered over the locket, now dim against my chest. “I used the piece of your soul.”

Realization struck against my heart. The piece of my soul that was meant for him. He had used it to save me.