Page 103 of Give the Dark My Love

“She’s there,” Phee said.

My eyes darted between the revenants, the crucible, and my sister.

The golden glow.It wasn’t in Nessie’s eyes. When I’d tried to raise her, the light didn’t sink back into her body. It melted into the iron crucible.

I dropped to my knees, the crucible in my hand. Now that I knew what I was looking for, I could feel it, sense it within the metal. I had given my twin her body back, but I had trapped her soul.

Surely I can get it out. I have to get it out.

I concentrated, forcing my eyes to focus on the unnatural light. It wisped around the edge of the metal. Almost... almost...

The light slipped through my fingers, snapping back to the crucible. At the same time, the revenants around me screamed as if theywere experiencing agony no human should ever feel. They dropped to the ground, their bodies writhing.

“What’s wrong?” I gasped, moving to Ronan.

“I don’t know,” he choked out. “But please, stop whatever you’re doing. Ithurts.”

“There has to be another way,” I mumbled, standing.

But I could sense the answer from them all. Their souls had passed through the iron crucible. They had felt her the way I felt them.

And they knew she was past the point of saving.

•••

The dead did not sleep. But I was not afforded the same luxury. It felt creepy to claim a former hospital room as my own, so I set up a little nest of blankets and pillows in the tower and let the dark, dreamless night engulf me, my heart keeping steady pace with the ticking clock. Ernesta sat in the center of the floor, unmoving.

When my eyes opened the next morning, I was immediately aware of all my revenants.

Someone’s coming,they told me.

I walked out onto the balcony in front of the clock. The sun was rising over the bay, the water so bright that it was at first hard to see the boat that drew closer to the stone steps leading to the hospital.

I took the stairs two at a time as I raced down. My revenants were all waiting for me, save Ernesta, who I left in the tower.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“My father.” Ronan stepped forward. “And others.”

My mind flashed to Dannix’s anger when he’d assaulted me after his wife’s death. What would he try to do to me when he saw his child turned into a revenant?

As one, my revenants looked to the door. I knew—because they knew—that the boat had arrived. I mentally ordered the others to stay in the foyer as I strode to the door and stepped into the morning light.

Five men and three women were making their way up the stone stairs. They stopped short when they saw me.

“What are you doing here?” I called down to them.

One of the men—Dannix—broke into a run. He stumbled up the last steps. He looked far wearier than when I’d last seen him, his face pulled tight with stress, his eyes rimmed in red. “You,” he said, recognition dawning. “Did you come to help—?” He choked over his own words, unable to continue, then turned and shouted to the others, “She’s an alchemist!”

Dannix stumbled up, grasping my hands. “You came back,” he said, his eyes alight with hope so fierce it was almost painful to see, like looking at the sun. “You came to help treat the ones who stayed.”

My heart thudded in my chest. I couldn’t tell him that his son was dead, not with him looking at me like that. “What are you doing here?” I asked again.

The group of people reached the top steps, and one of the women stepped forward. For the first time, I noticed her pallium. “You’re a priest,” I said.

She nodded. “We came to give the proper rites to the dead,” she said.

I thought of the plague victims who had not wanted to be raised. “Thank you,” I said. “There are three who—”

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