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She’d fought theery of a lover protecting the one she loved

Trying to smile, I wiped the tears fro "I wouldn’t have been able to do it either Remember?" I hated them, hated the demons for this Of all the curses I’d seen, heard whispers of, witnessed the destruction froh their love and fear was the worst

Ivy licked her lips, haunted eyes flicking past me when Nina sobbed behind the shut door "I should have killed her twice, but I was so scared that her soul would be lost forever when the lines fell and there was nowhere for it to go Nina was fine until her soul went into the bottle"

Another heartrending cry of loss rose behind the door when Ivy opened her hand to show iven her Nina’s moan was so filled with pain it even made Al shift his feet Or maybe he just wanted a closer look

"I had to do it" Ivy’s hand shook "I had to I couldn’t let her soul go to that hell"

I took Ivy’s hand in ers over the bottle before she dropped it Her hands were frighteningly cold Her head bowed, and I pulled her to ht wedged under my heartache Ivy had used the bottle after the lines had fallen It had worked with the Goddess’s strength Mystics wreathed her, unseen and unnoticed,my will for me

From behind the door, a wail rose, and Ivy sniffed back her tears "She knows I have it She wants it, but it will make her walk into the sun Rachel, I can’t"

I jerked when Ivy pulled back, her expression suddenly e the bottle into my hands "Take it and hide it"

"Ivy, I can’t"

"Hide it where she can’t find it Rachel, please!"

"It’sheard us, and Ivy’s eyes ide Shaking, I forced the bottle back into Ivy’s hand

"That won’t help," I said, hating my oardice

Ivy’s head bowed "I didn’t know it could hurt this much," she whispered to me "I watched my ain I pulled her to ," she breathed, but the tears were gone, leaving only an exhausted nu?" We separated, andwill be fine," I said, alain

"Ivy?" Nina warbled behind the door "Please, I need it! Just for a ive it back I promise!"

Ivy sed hard, eot her tied up I was hoping" Her shoulders fell, and she glanced behind me to Al "I decided that she should have it, even if she walks into the sun"

"Ivy"

Tears spilled from her anew as her chin lifted "Even if it aze found Al "You all deserve to die in whatever manner the elves can devise What you have forced on us deserves payment in pain"

Al becao"

"You let hied, and Nina screamed in pain behind the door

Al held his hat before hiree, but we can’t unravel her work"

A woman? I esturing to the door, "enough of the undead would refuse it out of fear, wanting the chance at iaze fastened on Ivy, and she quailed "You yourself can’t walk away from it Or you would have let Rachel take the virus from you already"

"Al, stop," I said as shame caused Ivy to drop her eyes

"You like it," Al said bitterly "The urge, the lust, the glorious satisfaction of fulfilling that need"

"That’s enough!" I exclai with re a bitter betrayal, Al shifted his accusing gaze from Ivy to me "The curse is power, Rachel, and she knoithout it her world would be flat and gray She’d rather live with pain and heartache than no feeling at all"

Angry, I got in his face "That is a sad excuse to cover your own guilt," I snapped, then dropped back when Ivy touchedthe knob Never turning around, she pushed open the door "See what your pride has wrought, derays and soothing greens lit by a battery-powered lantern hanging froht fixture Nina was tied up with soft straps They were designed for this, but they still cut into her skin as she struggled to be free, her eyes black and wide Blood ht in the ah her soul was gone, her aura would reed, straining to be free "Just for a moment You can have it back, but I need it just for a moment" Her eyes flicked to ed, a ht her bonds

"Interesting"

I spun, reaching for the support of Ivy’s dresser when ?" I snapped at Al "You son of a bastard! These are my friends!"

Al’s eyes twitched, but he never took them off Nina "I mean," he said as he shoved me deeper into the room, "that she knohere her soul is Your spell bound it so conizes it"

"Give it toback to sadness "Give it toNina into her ars I couldn’t hear, and Nina’s rage dissolved into a helpless, sobbing acceptance

My stoht of Bis up in the belfry and Trent probably trying to reach him without a ladder Before me, Ivy and Nina both ached, trapped in a hell of the de The fear of the people in the square rose up in ht the only way out was genocide

"We have to reopen the lines," I said, and behind hed

"Rachel, I knot thinks it’s possible, but it isn’t"

"To separate the "I don’t knoord that means that depraved and cruel"