Chapter Five

Julia floats close to me. "Let me see the spell."

We both freeze and look down at where her arm touches mine.

"I guess you can do more than see me now." She brushes her hand along my skin and then draws her fingers along my cheek.

I twine my fingers in her other hand, holding onto her because I'm afraid she'll disappear again. She brings our clasped hands up and brushes her lips across my fingers.

"You're warm… I'd forgotten." Eyes closed, she presses her cheek to the back of my hand and holds me there, but only for a moment before she exhales and the curtains flutter.

"May I do something I've wanted to do for… too long?"

I hesitate. "I remember a time when you wanted to kill me. So, it depends on what it is."

"If I wanted you dead, you would be." Her fingers brush my lips. "At first, I wanted you to leave, then… I started to like that you had come to haunt me, too."

I swallow the tremor of fear and lick my lips. "As long as your intentions are good."

"Good intentions are a matter of dates and puritanical rules." Her fingers tip my face up and she leans close. "Can I kiss you, Genevieve… in case this spell fades and I lose the chance to do it again?"

I look at her lips, soft and dark and pale and for the first time, there for me. "Yes."

Her hand grips my chin and as her lips meet mine, I can't help but shiver at the icy chill that her kiss pulses through me. I can't help but take the half step closer and take hold of her waist.

Julia says I've haunted her, but she has haunted my dreams and desires for so long now… I need her.

She hums a soft sound, breaking the kiss, but not drawing away. Forehead tipped to mine, she strokes my chin with her thumbs. "That may have been a bad idea."

"Why?"

"Because now, I don't want to give you back to the living…" she glances toward the floor, "or the half dead."

Half… "Crap."

I want to linger here. The way she smiles makes me want to forget for a moment, but I can't.

"I really want to talk to you. There are so many things I've wanted to ask, but… I have to deal with them first."

The smile fades and she releases my hand. "Of course. I'm sorry."

I catch the hand that she's just released mine from. "No, I'm the one who's sorry. If I hadn't messed this up…" I let those words fade, because if I hadn't, she wouldn't be solid right now.

"I understand."

I laugh mirthlessly and drag my hand down my face. "At least one of us does."

Her head tips to the side, but she doesn't ask me to clarify.

I grab my phone and hand it to her, but it drops straight through her palm and clatters on the floor.

"Oh. I guess the spell only works for me." I grimace as I scoop the phone back up.

"You're more than enough," she says.

"If I'd known that spell would do… this," I'm still not sure what it is, "I would have done it sooner."

Smiling, she shows off sharp teeth. "No point in dwelling on the past."

Her hand wraps around my waist, hugging me to her as she looks at my phone, reading the spell, silently. "It's been mislabeled. It's a reveal spell, not a revival one. That's why I'm here and they're not."

"You said they're half dead. What did you mean by that?"

"Look into their eyes," she says, releasing me.

"I already did."

Julia shakes her head. "Look through them."

Jonas is closer right now, so I go to him and peel his eye open.

They're glassy and lifeless like before… until I look into his pupil. Red and swirling sky, black branches… I draw back, because something in there tugs at me.

I immediately go to Dylan, lifting him so I can get a better look at the same thing "behind" his eyes.

"What am I seeing?" I ask as flashes of darkness flicker deep in his vision like there's a cyclone inside of him.

"Hell," she says.

"What?" I look up at her and drop Dylan.

His head hits the floor with a heavy thunk and I wince down at him for a moment before I go back to her.

"What do you mean ‘hell' is inside him?"

"It's not in him. You're seeing what he sees."

"But he shouldn't be in hell."

"You killed the soul of the one who lusted after you," Julia says. "He's not dead, but his soul has gone to find its place in hell until his body succumbs."

No… no, that can't be right. "That's not what the spell said."

"It is if you had read it untranslated."

"Untranslate…" I exhale and pinch the bridge of my nose. "The pages are enchanted to alter themselves to rhyme in the reader's language?"

"Did no one tell you how the black page books work?"

"No." I inhale deeply and let it out slowly. "I may have stolen this from my grandmother's library without her permission."

"Genevieve," she says my name, scolding and then cups my face with both of her hands. "You can't use spells you don't know the provenance of."

I know.

She knows I know.

I take a deep breath, and when I exhale, it's like the determination that had buoyed me drains out. "I just needed him to stop."

"I understand that now." She places her forehead against mine. "I thought you wanted him dead, so I didn't intervene."

"Did you want him dead?"

She tips my face up so that I meet her haunting eyes. "If this hadn't worked, he would have had an accident tonight that he would not have walked away from."

I believe her.

"I don't want him dead, I just want him to be my friend again, with no expectations." I chew on my lower lip for a moment and then I ask, "How do I get their souls back?"