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We haven’t gone back in the house, Tess admitted. I can’t tell you if she’s dead because I don’t know.

We both fell silent for a little while. You don’t have to fight alone, Tess said. And you shouldn’t. Friends are there to help you bear your burdens. You wouldn’t let Evie fight alone. You were a constant presence right by her side, even during her worst days. Why should you be any different? We love you just as much as her.

My lower lip wobbled. Evie and I are different, I whispered. She is easy to love.

Tess snorted. I’m a banshee who makes everyone uncomfortable every single time I speak, and yet I know you all love me.

I laughed. When did you get so wise?

She let out a heavy exhale. Banshees understand death far more than we do life. Waking up every day is…complicated. All of us yearn to float in the mist for the rest of our days, but our purpose is to serve. Most don’t have friends or loved ones. I’ve been extraordinarily blessed.

This was the most words Tess had ever strung together in the entire time I knew her.

I am content, she admitted. Mostly. But I will always have one foot in the mist and one foot in the living world. If given the choice, I would never voluntarily leave any of you. Her soft sigh brushed the encroaching fog away. I can’t imagine what you went through, Moira. Seeing the evidence of it on your skin will haunt me the rest of my days. I know you’re weary. If you decide to float away, I will return to that barren field and tell them all I could not find you. Your secret will stay with me forever. But if you decide to come with me, I will rip you through the mist and away from Death’s embrace and take you home where we will help you heal. Whether you wish us to or not. All you have to do is reach out your hand.

If I stayed here, I would never see any of them again. My mother would be free to take some other young, unsuspecting girl and do the same thing to her. No one would ever draw me into their arms again. I’d never make tea, sink into a hot bath, laugh with Evie, make love to Cernunnos.

See Ethan.

The male who hadn’t come for me.

I exhaled. I’d have to keep fighting until my mother was ash at my feet. Hot tears spilled down my cheeks. Killing her would make the world a little safer.

And Ethan would be free. Even if he didn’t want me, he didn’t deserve what happened to him.

We would all be free.

I raised a trembling hand into the nothingness. Take me home.

The nothingness fell away, and all I felt was excruciating pain.

Chapter

Sixteen

“You bitch,” Evie hissed, her azure eyes snapping with fury. “How dare you leave me! How dare you make my father carry out your dead body. How dare—” Her voice cracked. She bowed her head and dragged in a ragged breath. “How dare you die.”

My dry throat clicked. Evie reached over and brought a straw to my lips. Her fingers trembled. “I want to slap you so hard, you stupid bitch, but you’re held together with duct tape and string, so I have to wait until you’re better.”

I snorted and started coughing. Evie’s lips tugged into a reluctant smile.

“Dad made this. Probably tastes like shit, but it will help you heal. Turns out mortal wounds don’t heal as quickly as others do, even when you have us around.”

I grimaced at the first sip. Whatever the hell this was should have a warning label on it.

“He said drink it all.”

My nostrils flared, but I choked the entire thing down. Evie pulled the cup away, set it on the side table, and glared at me. “You died.”

“Sorry about that.” My voice sounded like it hadn’t been used in weeks.

“You knew when you made my father drop that barrier what would happen.”

I shook my head, wincing at the ache in my neck. “No. I suspected, but there was no way to know.”

“She gutted you like a field-dressed deer, Moira.” Her voice broke. “And my father had to carry you out, broken and lifeless in his arms. He will never get over that.”

Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. “You can’t—there’s no way⁠—”