Page 73 of Ghoul Me, Maybe
We sit around it wrapped in threadbare blankets Mira pulled from the van. The wreck looms behind us—no longer cursed, no longer glowing. Just an old ship stripped bare by time.
“What happens now?” Sienna asks quietly.
Mira and Lyle exchange a look.
“Technically?” Lyle says. “You two are bound by an energy link older than most written magic. That’s probably going to get messy.”
“Define messy,” she says.
“Emotions. Thoughts. Physical feedback. You might dream each other’s memories. Might feel phantom pain. Might, you know,dieif the other dies.”
Sienna winces. “Cool, cool. Casual soul marriage. Got it.”
“You did this willingly,” Mira adds. “That makes it stronger. And harder to reverse. If you evencan.”
I stay quiet.
Let them talk.
Let themguess.
Because while they’re tossing around arcane theories and metaphysical diagrams, I’m just watching the firelight flicker across her skin and thinking, I’ve never been so fuckinggratefulto hurt.
To feel.
Toachein ways that prove I’m real again.
Later, when they leave—exhausted, buzzing with leftover magic—we’re alone.
Just me, her, and the stars.
Sienna leans her head against my shoulder.
“You feel different,” she murmurs.
“Iamdifferent.”
Her hand trails down my arm. “No cold spots. No flickering. You’re all here.”
“I don’t think I know how tobehere yet,” I admit.
She’s quiet for a long moment.
Then: “You don’t have to know. Just... stay.”
“I didn’t ask you to do this,” I say softly.
“I didn’t ask for permission,” she shoots back, fierce and raw.
My throat tightens.
“You tied your life to mine,” I whisper. “That’s more than magic. That’s... devotion.”
“It’slove, dumbass.”
She turns to look at me.
Eyes burning.
