✧ ✧ ✧

Nothing changes when you are dead. Still, something has changed.

"Wake up."

I sink into a dark ocean of stars, quiet and peaceful and infinite void...It lasts a moment, it lasts forever. Until a voice reaches out to me. Her voice. Who is she, though? And why does she pull me out of the peaceful ocean?

"Is he still dead?" a boy asks.

"Not for long now." Pale light flickers behind my closed eyelids, and I feel someone's delicate finger brushing my lips. "Wake up," she whispers.

"You told him you shot him not for real, didn't you, Yara?"

"Didn't exactly have a chance. The smartass thought if he played tough, I'd let him sacrifice himself. He forgot a Vedma could feel his bluffing heartbeat."

"I don't like putting him into Zoryan's body," another girl says nearby.

"One, it's temporary. Until I figure out how to heal his own body. It was either killing him or letting Tatya obliterate his soul forever, and then we wouldn't be able to resurrect him at all. Second, it's not my fault someone put a curse of bad luck on Zoryan and the bastard was unfortunate enough to run into us, just when we needed a body at our disposal, Kadri."

Kadri harrumphs. "And I would have cursed the bastard again. Anyone who dares to touch my body without asking will end up with no body of their own."

Ground shifts beside me, and other voices over my head blend into an incoherent conversation, then suddenly everything goes still.

Another flicker of pale light.

"Turn the flashlight off, Jasna. The watchman will think we're grave robbers if sees us."

"And we're so much more, aren't we, brother? Fine, fine...Ow! Don't stomp on my new boots, Ady."

"Well, sorry. It's dark now."

"And you still have zero orientation skills in the dark, don't you? Hah, I get it now why I have a giant bruise on my ass, did you carry me like a bag of potatoes out of the unlit morgue halls?"

"You have a giant bruise, because you when you woke up, you saw a demon, freaked out, and flopped on your ass."

"Right, Yara's reticent friend...Bogdan, where are you?"

"He's behind your back."

Something heavy hit the ground with a thud beside me. "Shit."

Adélard laughs. "And there, you have another bruise."

The voices sound familiar and funny, and I want to join them, yet I'm not sure I should. The ocean was safe, and as I drift away from the stars, focusing on the flickering light, I begin to feel the chilly wind biting my cheeks, smell the repulsive scent of rotten leaves, and sense a ghost of aching pain in my chest.

My chest.

I was dead.

Why is my heart beating again?

Suddenly curious, I slowly open my eyes, but it's truly too dark to see anything. Anything but her. The girl sitting on the ground beside me and leaning to look at my face, her soft finger patiently stroking my lip.

As our eyes lock, I recognize that warm brown twinkle in her irises. Fire Girl. As if ripped out of an endless dream, the memories of last night flood my mind at once. The church, the gunshot, the lies. She didn't believe those lies, after all. My clever villainess.

"A dying wish, Mir, really?" she asks mockingly when she notices me looking at her. A smile blooms on her mouth. "You can't get rid of me that easily. Now welcome to the other side, my king."

✦ ✦ ✦