Nico shoved the chains out of the way with his boot, then took his place at the foot of the slab, jaw set, looking like this was the worst idea in the world, even though it had been his.
Emilia set a thick, black, bound book on a narrow pedestal, then placed a narrow knife beside it, lighting four candles on each point of the slab, her feet crunching through…
I looked down.
The entire floor was covered in a layer of salt, thick enough to be freshly fallen snow.
She spoke—not in Italian, not in the Old Tongue we used for ceremonies, but in something harsher, more guttural. The words scraped along my nerves like claws.
“What is she chanting?” I muttered.
Nico shook his head, his face pale. “You don’t want to know.”
Emilia glanced over her shoulder. “Step closer, both of you. Hands on the slab.”
We obeyed, moving to stand on either side of Ember. Salt crunched beneath our feet. The stone was ice under my palms, the air thrummed with an undercurrent that started out chaotic, then settled into a rhythm, like a heartbeat.
“The ritual needs three things.” Emilia’s voice echoed faintly off the stone. “Water, blood, and will.”
She gestured to the faint dampness still clinging to Emberline’s throat, her hair. “The water is already present;the lagoon took her in its embrace. We will use that tie to drag her back to us, back to the world.”
She picked up the knife, candlelight glinting off the blade.
“The blood,” she explained, “is ours to give freely, a gift to the Goddess of Death. A token of our appreciation for returning something that rightfully belongs to her.”
Before I could blink, she sliced a shallow, clean line across my palm. Pain flared, blood welled, dark and viscous, before Emilia pressed my bleeding palm over Emberline’s heart. The dark stain spread outwards, seeping through soaked fabric.
“Nico,” she ordered. “Hand. Now.”
He extended his hand without flinching. She cut him just as ruthlessly, then pressed his palm over Emberline’s throat.
“And mine,” Emilia drew the blade across her own palm. The scent that hit the air was heavier than mine, older, carrying a sulphury undertone that made the candles flicker. I’d never smelled blood this ancient—the kind that carried the weight of millennia.
Emilia laid her hand over Ember’s mouth, and I shuddered as rivulets crawled down her cheeks.
“Do not move,” she warned. “Do not pull away. No matter what you see. No matter what you hear. If you break the connection, I cannot put it back together.”
A prickle of unease crawled down my spine. “What are we going to hear?”
Emilia’s smile was sharp. “Death does not let go peacefully. She will fight to keep your wife in the darkness. We must fight just as hard to drag her back to this realm. I do hope you are up to the challenge.”
She began to chant again in that strange, guttural language.
My hand was slick against Emberline’s skin, blood pooling in the base of her throat. Nico’s jaw clenched as our eyes met, both of us wondering if we’d miscalculated.
Her words rolled through the chamber like a tide, buffeting the candle flames, every breath tasting of salt and old stone as Emilia’s voice rose, then dropped, power rising in the room, enough to make my bones vibrate. The book’s pages turned on their own, riffling, as if caught in a wind.
The air around us shimmered.
Pain tore through my palm, up my arm, into my chest. My heart stuttered, then skipped a beat entirely. For one terrifying second, there was no rhythm in my body at all, and above Ember, a dark figure floated. Eyeless Death, malice seeping from its hazy form, lifted that soulless gaze to mine.
Power slammed into me like a closed fist.
I gasped, thrown backward from the force, palm slipping,slipping away… until Nico’s free hand shot out, caught me in an iron grip, and held me in place.Steady, he mouthed, sweat beading on his forehead.
Ember’s back arched into a taut line.
Water exploded from her mouth in a violent gush, mixed with my blood, splattering across Emilia’s hand, soaking the front of her negligee. Ember’s chest convulsed, heaving, expelling more water, more until she was choking on it, coughing, fighting for air.
