Page 118 of The Unbound Witch

“But have you tried? Perhaps it is different on a wish.”

“No.” Raven shook her head.

“Evangeline, come forward.”

A haunted face moved casually through a wall, entering the room as if she’d been waiting for her name to be called. With sunken eyes and a face boasting a permanent frown, the girl inched forward. The lower half of her body in tattered skirts and bone thin legs flowing beneath her in a perfect rhythm as she waited.

“Cast death upon her. See if you can end her misery.”

“I will not perform for you or any of your nosey following. I’m not here for placating curiosity.”

“I wish it,” the wraith whispered, moving toward Raven. “Please.”

“What if I cast on you and you have to relive your death over and over because the spell cannot complete on a wraith? What if you’re stuck in an eternity of misery because you agreed to be a pawn?”

The wraith moved closer. Afraid I wouldn’t be able to hear her, I lowered myself to listen. I wasn’t sure if Raven’s questions were private or not. She hadn’t asked for me to come along, hadn’t protested when we were separated. I didn’t want her to know I was eavesdropping. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been doing it at all, but I needed to know if she was in danger, and hiding it because if she was somehow trying to pacify the rest of us, I wouldn’t stand for it. Not after watching her suffer in the human lands.

“I already live an eternity of misery and I am not a pawn. I was selected from a pool of wraiths that were willing to try this. To leave this world and—”

“Are you afraid to cast upon this wraith because if it works and your friend, the wish, finds out she would demand the same?”

Raven stepped backward. “I… no.”

Another wraith flew forward, whispering in Meliora’s ear. She smiled and continued as if she hadn’t heard a thing.

“If you could send your friend back to the afterlife, would you?”

I dropped lower. We hadn’t thought about using the death spell to send me back. But if she could… I supposed there was a time I would have agreed. I would have coveted it. Thinking of Nym, though. And Raven. And Tor and the pup… I don’t know what I would choose now. I’d lose them eventually. They’d all die and I’d be stuck here. I knew I didn’t want that.

“Kirsi is like my sister. If we shared the same blood, we couldn’t be closer. I would give her my own life, if it meant she could have hers back.” She lifted her shoulder, blocking her ear as if something had tickled her. “You can bring her here right now and I would cast upon her if she asked for it.”

“I have other plans for your wish, girl. You will cast death upon this wraith, or I will not answer the questions you have asked.”

There was no warning as Raven turned to the wraith and struck her with the death spell. It surged through the room like an arrow and landed right in her chest. Everyone stopped. Even the ancient ghost on the dusty throne inched forward, eyes wide as she stared and waited. You could have heard a spell drop in the static of silence.

The wraith held her hand to her chest and for a second, one tiny fraction of a moment, I envied her. But I was not as trapped as these other wraiths were. I could find another whispering pearl. Wondering if they’d been destroyed in the crash of the floating isles, I looked around, watching the faces of the other wraiths. Hungry and desperate as they stared at my sister. And then I knew. If she could send this wraith to the afterlife, they’d never let her escape this maze. They’d fight the Dark King with everything they had to hold her as a weapon. And then another war would rage. As above, so below, quite literally.

Raven must have realized the same, moments too late as she stepped toward the door, eyes still glued to the wraith. But nothing happened. She’d felt the spell strike her, but hadn’t changed otherwise.

“Pity,” the old ghost said, sliding backward. “We could have had so much fun together.”

The rest of the beings circled the room at a new pace, more determined than ever to unsettle the witch left to the whims of an ancient ghost.

“You will answer all of my questions now,” Raven said. “That was our deal.”

“Indeed it was, Witch.”

“How old are you?”

“That is not the question you truly came here to ask, is it?”

She twisted her hands through her curls. Showing her first sign of nerves, I couldn’t help but pity her. Something was wrong and, whatever the burden, she didn’t want to share.

Still, she raised her head and dropped her hands. “I’m going to die. I’m connected to the Grimoires and they are dying. The Moss Coven Grimoire is nearly there already. Is there any way to save them, or me?”

I froze. The wraiths circling me, passing through me, concealing me as something within me seized. I wondered how long she’d known, but mostly I was hurt she hadn’t confided in me. Maybe Bastian wouldn’t have been able to handle the truth, but I could have. And still, she hadn’t trusted me.

But how could I be selfish when she was dying? At least for me, there was no time to fear Death. But Raven had taken from him. And when she met him a second time, he likely wouldn’t show her mercy. He’d take her with a fierceness he thought owed and she would have no defense. She was right to fear him. Just as the world should have feared her more than it did.