I shake my head, grasping the syringe tightly in my hand. “No. I know it won’t kill you because I’m not going to use it on you.” With a deep breath, I bite off the cap on the needle and spit it onto the floor. Then I aim the needle at his chest. “It’s going to kill me.”

Something sparks inside her eyes, like fire, blazing intensely. “You won’t do it. Humans fear death more than anything.”

I inch the needle closer to my chest until the tip is poking the fabric of my shirt. “Not this human, and I think the real Gemma knows me enough to know that’s the truth.”

“The real Gemma is dead,” she snarls. “So this is just a wasted effort.

“Well, if that’s true, then I guess I’m about to find out,” I say, hating that my voice is a little unsteady.

“I’m calling your bluff.” She arches her eyebrows challengingly, but I can see the anxiousness hidden beneath her confidence. “You don’t have it in you to go through with it.”

“You think so, huh?” My hand trembles as I summon another breath, then giving myself no time to back out, I sink the needle into his skin. Blood pools out and my heart hammers in my chest. Just one push of the end and death will be injected into my body. I’m more terrified than I thought I would be, but mainly because I fear I’ll never see Gemma again; that she’ll be left unprotected in the world and something will happen to her.

“Say you care for me,” I demand, getting close to her, wanting to evoke emotion out of her. “Tell me not to do it.”

She shakes her head swiftly. “Never.”

I put my thumb on the end of the syringe, ready to push. “Then I guess this is good-bye.” Shit. I can’t believe I’m about to go through with this, and all I can do is hope that Aislin can bring me back.

“Then do it,” she says as she presses her lips together and waits.

Sparks are going crazy between us, full force, either feeding off my emotions or hers. I’m hoping hers, for the sake of making this sacrifice worth it.

“Get ready, Aislin,” I say with my eyes locked on Gemma. Then, summoning a shaky breath, I push the end of the syringe with my thumb.

Aislin lets out a hysterical weep. “Alex! Stop!”

But it’s too late. The medicine is injected into my body and courses through my veins; potent, liquid fire that burns and boils my blood. I can’t think. Hear. See anything. My breath is leaving me. I can no longer feel my heart beating. I’m about to die. Images flood my head, one’s I’m familiar with, ones I’ve never seen before.

Gemma and I. Our hideout. Violet flowers she used to pick for me all the time. Dancing in a field with her. Kissing her, touching her. Love. Blood Promise. Blood-bonded eternally. Forever.

Someone screams at the top of their lungs. “Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop. It’s me. It’s Gemma. Alex, stop!”

“Gemma…” I wrench the needle out of my heart, blood drizzling through my shirt. I’m panting, skin pale, dying. I heard her voice—I heard Gemma—which means it worked. It had to have worked. And now I’m dying, leaving her. “Damn it…” My breath slips away, and as my heart takes its last beat, I collapse to the floor.

It happens so quickly that I don’t have time to process it. One minute my brain is full of haziness where I can only see one single thought—kill Alex—and then suddenly I’m free, my heart flooding with emotions.

Pain. Longing. Need. Sadness. I see so many things. Alex and I. Our hide out. Violet flowers. Dancing in a field. Blood Promise. Forever.

Everything I’ve ever felt in my past, before my emotions were erased, surges through back to me and jumpstarts my emotions.

I scream at the top of my lungs. “Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop. It’s me. It’s me. Alex, stop!”

But it’s too late. He gags as he pulls the needle out of his heart. Gasping for air, his skin pallid, eyes wide. Seconds later, he crumples to the floor.

A blood-curdling scream rips from my lips. “Aislin! Untie me! Please. He can’t die now!” I did this. This is all my fault. No. Help. Stop. Please. God, it hurts so much.

Aislin buckles over Alex’s body with her head tucked down as she utters a chant under her breath, over and over again. Her hand glows red as she presses it to his heart. I realize she’s doing a spell, hopefully one that will bring him back. However, the longer it goes on, the more my hope crumbles. After a while, Aislin gets quiet, tears still falling from her eyes as she glances up at me.

“He’s dead, Gemma. He’s dead,” she whispers softly as the glow from her hand fades.

“No, he’s not!” I cry as I tug on the ties around my arms and legs. “Aislin, please untie me. I need to be with him.”

She finally is able to get up, and then she moves over to me, her eyes swollen; tears streaming down her cheeks. She unfastens the ties around my wrists, her fingers shaking. As soon as she gets the last one, I spring upright and scramble over to where Alex is lying on the floor. His eyes are open, though distant and blank; his arms and legs are sprawled on the floor. He’s not breathing. I check his pulse with my fingertips. Nothing. I try to feel the sparks. Nothing. I feel nothing.

I vaguely hear Aislin say something to me, but I can’t make out her words. There’s so much pain. Emptiness. I feel like I’m being pushed down from it. Sinking. Falling. Dying.

There’s a frozen lake before me and icicles dangle from the leafless tree branches. The dark sky casts a shadow over the icy land and the air is as chilly as death. Alex’s arms are wrapped tightly around me as we stand near the edge of the frozen water, holding onto one another as if our lives depend on it.

“We’ll be all right, won’t we?” I ask him, but he doesn’t respond.

A gentle breeze blows through my hair and the silence around us makes the world feel desolate, hollow, and empty. At the moment, though, I feel at whole; at peace, calm.

I tip my head back and look up at him to tell him my worries, but he shushes me as he brushes my hair away from my face. “It will be all right,” he whispers, but his voice is unsteady.

My lips part to argue, but a crackle rises through the air and sucks the words from my lips. Moments later, tall, cloaked figures emerge from the trees surrounding us.

“Death Walkers.” I look at Alex in terror. “What do we do?”

He sweeps my hair back again and pulls me closer to him. “It will be all right,” he whispers again. “Just trust me.”

I feel warmth and pain. Heat and agony. Then suddenly I’m suffocated by light. Yet for some reason, it feels like everything will be okay.

Gripping onto him, I take a deep breath and let the warmth engulf me, allowing myself to get taken away from the world as I hold onto Alex, refusing to let go. There’s a soft tug and I can feel him slipping away, though. I let out a scream, but I get lost in the light.

“Gemma,” a voice calls out to me. “Can you hear me?”

My body tenses as light encircles me. “Who’s there?”

“Come toward me,” the voice echoes around me.

I lift my hand to my forehead and try to shield my eyes from the blinding light, but I still can’t see a thing. “Whoever you are, I can’t see you. The light’s too bright.”

“Yes, you can,” the voice assures me. “You just have to look harder.”

The voice sounds familiar, but I’m certain that it doesn’t belonged to Nicholas, even though it seems like something he would say to fuck with my head. The voice is much deeper, though, and sounds older and wiser.

I blink a few times and the light begins to dim. Slowly at first, and then more quickly, until there’s nothing left other than a soft glow orbing around me. I can see my hands and arms… my feet… I start to get my bearings when, suddenly, my legs are ripped out from under me.