Page 49 of Death Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

The cold gust returned, stronger, swirling around our ankles.

Eve’s hellfire flared in her palm, not thrown, just ready.

Tegan’s relic shimmered, and she turned in a slow circle, eyes scanning. “Something moved.”

Nishi’s posture tightened. “Where?”

Tegan pointed toward a cluster of graves near the back fence. “There. Under that tree.”

We moved as one, boots crunching on gravel.

The mist thickened near the fence. The cedar branches hung low, heavy with damp.

And there, half buried under dead leaves near the base of the tree, was something dark and metallic.

Not a coffin handle. Not trash.

A disk, about the size of my palm, etched with symbols that looked like the carvings on the stones, only cleaner, older.

Tegan crouched carefully, relic held close. “That’s not from this cemetery.”

Eve’s face went tight. “That’s placed.”

Faith held her weapon steady. “Don’t touch it.”

Tegan didn’t. She hovered her relic over it, eyes narrowing. “It’s resonating like a beacon.”

My stomach clenched as the tether sensation flared. Stronger now that we were close.

“That’s the knot,” I whispered. “That’s where the array is anchored.”

Nishi’s phone buzzed again, and she glanced down, eyes narrowing.

“They’re asking for backup at the funeral home,” she said. “The outbreak is escalating.”

Eve’s jaw clenched. “Of course it is.”

I stared at the disk, at the carved language of resurrection, at the echo of Drathar’s style in the lines.

Then I looked at Eve. “Could Dagna be involved?”

Eve’s gaze flicked to me. “Why would you say that?”

“Because this feels like something pulled from the black market,” I said, voice tight. “Something placed deliberately. Dagna deals in banned magic items.”

Tegan nodded slowly, eyes still on the disk. “If someone needed an artifact tied to resurrection, they’d go to someone like that.”

Nishi’s expression stayed controlled, but her eyes hardened. “Dagna disappeared. That makes her harder to track.”

Eve’s mouth tightened. “Glinda is turning in her grave over her sister’s power.”

“Only because she lost our fight,” Faith said.

The disk sat there, silent and smug, like it knew it was the center of our problems.

And somewhere downtown, another building full of bodies was becoming a second feeding ground.

Nishi lifted her phone again, voice clipped. “We take the disk. Now. Then we move to the funeral home.”