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"It is possible, all you have to do is say yes" Keeping his body sealed to’s different I feel weightless, free, like I can finally breathe "Give me permission" His lips touch my cheek, then the corner of my mouth as his free hand slips down the front of ive me permission"

My eyes shut and my lips part open as I feel ht be easier to give in "You have permission to do what you--"

"Ember, don’t" Asher’s voice jerks me back to earth--to life--and "

I can’t see his rin spans Cameron’s face "Asher, my dear friend, you’re just in tiuys know each other?"

"Get away fro "You have no right to be touching her like that"

"And neither do you" Ca as he watches my excited reaction to the sound of Asher’s voice

I need to see hiaze sideways and spot Asher storround with his hands clenched into fists His face is bruised, his knuckles are scraped raw, and the scar beneath his eyebrow ring is more defined and dominant

"What’s… what’s" My lips hitch shut

"Get off of her" He’s so close, but still so far away "Or I swear to God I’ll--"

Bending his knees, Caround He turns his back onAsher in the middle of the tombstones "Or you’ll what?"

"You’ve broken rules," Asher growls, balling his fists "A lot of them"

Wrath thunders in both their eyes as they charge for each other, their boots scrapping at the dirt The sky ruround quakes as they reach one another Likefrom a lake, a black cloak forms around Cameron and ss him up as he swishes it around his body Asher lets out a derailing screech, springing on his toes, pushing into the air as wings tri his shirt into pieces They slam into one another and the collision of their bodies deafens the night

Suddenly, s and arms return to my control and I jump to my feet as a tornado of feathers and , el and a Griel and a Grim Reaper?

"Ember!" Raven’s voice draws me back to my other problem

She’s back in the shadows of the ce her head I run across the grass toward her, waving for her to run the other way "Raven, we have to get out of here--" I fall face-first into an open grave and land hard Cold skin touches mine and my insides quiver as I push up and blink down at Mackenzie Baker Her blonde hair is covered in dirt and red lines track her neck and wrists It hits me like a shove off a cliff as my mind races back to Cameron’s house, the bands on her neck and wrists

"Oh my God," I breathe "You were dead the whole time… I can see the dead"

Dirt sprinkles down on me and I flip over to my back Raven leans over the shallow hole, with blood in her hair, blankness in her eyes, and a handful of dirt in her hand

"I love you, E more dirt down on ive in"

Shielding ertips into the dirt

"Please don’t make this harder than it already is, Em" Raven disappears for a moment and when she returns, she has a shovel in her hand "If you would have just given up back at the fire, I wouldn’t have to do this to you You could have saved me from this burden" She scoops up another shovel full of dirt and drops it down onto be buried alive, and remain there until you break"

"Raven" I hurdle onto the side of the grave, burrowingfor just a second You don’t want to do this"

She plucks out a twig fro it fall all the way to the bottom "Of course I don’t What I want is a happy life, with a mother who isn’t crazy and a friend who can be near people What I want is to go back in time and never leave that party with Laden, so I could erase what it felt like when he hadof his filthy hands onup at the sky

Extending e of the hole, but my feet slip out fro ainst the wall I clumsily claay upward and finally, I heave rass

Raven bounds on top of ut, and she pinsupel statue, her head hitting the stone hard, and she lets out a groan "What’s happening toJust stay here, okay?" I race through the headstones toward the Reaper and the Angel of Death still battling each other in the rass

Ca on hiers are wrapped around his throat "Tellalone all this ti the rules" He presses his fingers tighter around Asher, who slides his hands up Cameron’s arms, desperate to escape