“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.” She tsked. “You wouldn’t want anything to happen to your friend.”
I didn’t lower the glass. Instead, I drove it straight into her shoulder. Kenna would just have to forgive me later. Her scream reverberated through the church. A flailing elbow caught the corner of my chin, knocking me to the ground. A salty, metallic taste filled my mouth, and a searing pain tore from my upper thigh. A chunk of glass was embedded deep into the flesh.
Kenna yanked the glass from her shoulder, ignoring the blood flowing from the wound. I threw up my hands, bracing for the blow, but Kenna brought the jagged piece of glass to her own throat.
“I’m so sorry,” she mouthed. “I can’t hold her off for long.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“No!” I screamed, trying to stop her, but my leg gave out beneath me. Pain radiated from my thigh, and all I could do was watch in horror as she slit her own throat. Blood spewed from the gash, spilling down the front of her chest and to the floor.
The glass clanked on the ground, and Kenna followed.
I tried to rise to my feet, but putting any pressure on my left leg was excruciating. Each movement caused the glass to shift, allowing it to slice deeper.
I looked around. Cal had done a good job at keeping the smoke and flames at bay. Without Veda’s influence, the fire reduced swiftly to embers.
A beautiful red-haired woman came to stand next to Kenna’s spirit. Freckles dusted her nose and cheeks. She seemed so muchyounger than I imagined. Probably in her early twenties, no older than any of us.
Veda took in the chaos she had created. I took a step toward her, and Veda tensed.
“Don’t you dare touch me,” she hissed, but before she could escape, I reached out and clasped her hand tightly.
“Rest in peace, bitch,” I murmured, watching her spirit flicker and dissolve, forced to pass beyond the thinning veil, fading into nothingness.
The spell had weakened the veil, a wrongness tugging between the worlds.
Power rippled from the entrance. A dark figure stepped through as if it were nothing but a mere doorway, shadows and darkness folded around him, the air frosting in his wake. Death answered to him, not violent or cruel, but absolute. Final.
The hooded figure crossed fully into this world, and the veil shuddered, closing behind his passage. I felt the balance be restored from the damage the spell had caused.
Beside him drifted Kenna’s spirit, hazy and pale, tethered loosely to the body she no longer belonged to. She hovered there, uncertain of which direction to go. Souls often hesitated before crossing the veil, but I refused to help guide hers to the afterlife.
He loomed over Kenna’s body. His hood hid most of his face, but I caught his eyes when he lifted his head. They were black as a starless void, flecked with honey. Ancient eyes that had seen every type of ending.
He wrapped a large, bony hand around Kenna’s throat. His touch was gentle, not meant to kill but to remind her soul where it belonged.
My chest tightened as he glanced at me and gave a curt nod.
A command.
Do your duty.
I scrambled through the wreckage, trying to get to Kenna’s body, my leg protesting with each step.
“What are you?” I asked. My magic hummed in his presence. Like death itself stood before me.
He didn’t answer.
I took Kenna’s still warm hand in my sweaty palm and reached out to Kenna’s spirit with the other.
Her spirit hesitated, her eyes locked onto my outstretched hand.
“Trust me, please,” I urged softly, my voice steady but laced with desperation. I wouldn’t force her, not like I had with Veda, but I needed my best friend to trust me.
She smiled, one I recognized, and took my hand.
And then the impossible happened. Kenna’s spirit passed through me and back into her body.
Kenna’s eyes flew open as she gasped for air. Only a scar remained from where she had slit her throat.
