“He died recently, of course,” Marden says looking him over, her hands on his cheeks, dropping a tincture into his parted lips. “Maybe he was even been buried. But his skin is that of a sea creature. It’s as if he was preserved in salt water, and somehow, he floated from the ocean depths to the marshy land of river Styx. The question is, why?”

“Harlow,” I say. “He said he was looking for Harlow’s sister.” I run a hand through my hair, beginning to doubt this unplanned mission. But then again, maybe Eric is the path I need to take to change my direction.

One day can change everything.

The witch nods. “Why did you bring him to me?” she asks.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you know Harlow?”

“I haven’t a clue,” I tell her honestly. “But I’ve been here since I was four. I know nothing about anything. All I know is the stories people have told me over the years.”

“You’ve been in Styx since you were four?” Marden asks, wide-eyed.

I look at Hawthorne. We’ve always been here together.

“Yes.”

She sputters. “But that’s... How could you... it doesn’t work that way.”

“I know,” I say, blinking back years of loneliness. “I know most people are here for weeks or months and maybe, on rare occasions, a bit longer before passing through to their final resting place.”

“But not you.”

I swallow. “But not us. Hawthorne and I have been here that long, and Lennox and South have been here for years too.”

Her wrinkled face crinkles even more. “How unusual.” As she speaks, her torso fades for a beat, before returning. “He will be okay,” Marden says looking down at Eric. “See, his color is returning. But you, my darlings, are another matter.”

“What do you mean?” Lennox asks, his brows furrowing as he speaks.

“I mean that you are unusual. The question is why. Why are you so special? And why were you drawn to this man tonight? Why risk saving him instead of letting his soul depart as it wanted to? You wanted to intervene. To keep him alive. There must be a reason.”

I lick my lips, but South huffs, crossing his arms.

“What is it?” Marden asks him. “What is your guess?”

“Tennyson has the hots for him, that’s all.”

My shoulders tense at his accusation. “God, South, stop being like that,” I say, my voice raised more than I’d like.

“Do you?” Marden asks. “Is that what this is about?”

I shake my head. Yes, he is handsome, and appealing in a way that is new, but that isn’t what made me ask the guys I’d just pushed away for help.

“No. First, Hawthorne and I had been talking and I said I wanted to change my life, change the course of things. And he said one day could change everything. So, I thought, hey, maybe he is the thing that could change everything, after all, I was the first one to see him when he arrived.”

I sigh, knowing there is more to it than that. “But then, when I touched him.” The sentence causes Hawthorne, Lennox, and South to scowl. “Not like that. God. I touched his arm when he was like, falling apart.” I huff. “And it was like…“ I wave my hands in the air. “I felt something. A spark. A connection. And not a physical one. It was more like we were linked somehow.”

“Linked?” Lennox scowls. “That’s a new one.”

“You know, it’s really shitty to confess your love to me when you never actually trusted me. Love doesn’t work that way, Lennox.”

He looks at me with tears in his eyes. Is he actually crying, over this? Over thinking that I wanted to hook-up with this stranger? “What do you know about love, Tenny?”

Now I’m the one with tears in my eyes. I know about love. But to admit that to them means four broken hearts.

Steeling my eyes at him, I glare. “I guess I don’t know a damn thing, Lennox, do I?”

“Enough,” Marden says, a dropper between her fingers as she applies medicine of some sort to Eric’s eyes. “Whatever you felt is real,” she tells me. “Connections in Styx are stronger than connections anywhere else. It is your souls’ last chance to get something right.” She exhales, slowly. “You four, have you got it right yet?”

She looks at us, her eyes slits, she wavers back and forth, her body ghostly as if deciding if it should stay or should go. Instinctively, I reach for her, not wanting her to leave just yet. But as my hand touches hers, her body still fades. She isn’t here as clearly as she was a moment ago.

“Why didn’t it work?” I ask, wishing the words hadn’t been said out loud. I look over at Eric, who appears to be fading himself, and I press my hands to his chest, quickly, without pause. I don’t want him to die.

Why is everyone going out on me at once?

My touch works, and it isn’t until I look around the room that I’ve given myself away.

Marden, though is scared. Her hands clasp tightly. “What are you?”

I shake my head, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Have you done that before?”

“What?”

“Kept someone here.”

I bite my bottom lip. “I have. I mean, I can.”

“What do you mean you can?” Hawthorne asks. His voice is filled with annoyance since he believes he knows every last thing about me. And with reason. We’ve lived together in Styx forever, and for all intents and purposes, he does know everything about me.

But not this.

Not the truth about what is happening.

“I’ve seen Lennox and South... and you...” I can’t look up, suddenly the words are so heartbreaking I don’t want to say them aloud. But Marden presses me to speak.

“Tell us, child. Tell us what you can do.”

“Why do you care?” I ask her.

“Because I lived a long life Earth-side and, for all my witchiness, I never knew a soul who could bring back the dead.”

I begin to cry, something I never, ever do. I try to act tough, using my physical attributes to get what I need when I need it. I don’t have much in ways of book smarts to give me a leg up here, I never went to school for a day in my life. So, I’ve always used what I had to survive.

I wipe my eyes, hating that this conversation is happening here, in front of Eric who is now blinking and breathing, and Marden, a witch who is about to fade away forever.

It’s private, the words I have to say. The words I want to hold back.

“Just tell us what you mean, when you say you can bring souls back,” South pushes me for an answer.

Cover my face with my hands, not wanting to be the bearer of this news.

“Who have you saved? Kept grounded?” Marden asks me.

I shake my head, not wanting to answer.

“Dammit, Ten, tell us,” Hawthorne says, pacing the small room.

“Fine,” I shout. “You won’t want to know. It’s not a good story.”

“Just tell us,” he asks, reaching for my hands. South and Lennox look at me, but I realize, maybe they already know.

Maybe that’s why they confessed their love. Maybe they are as scared as I am.

“I’ve seen all of you fading, and I’ve touched you all when it happens, and it keeps you here.” The words force everyone in the room to flinch. Lennox’s dark eyes are now black, South’s piercing blue eyes filling with tears. They know what this means as well as I do.

“And?” Hawthorne asks jaw clenched as if he knows when I am holding back. “Who else?”

“Eric.”

“And?” he asks again, this time louder. More urgent.

“And what?” Eric asks. At some point during the interrogation he sat up, and while his shoulders are still slumped, he’s alert.

“The what matters greatly,” Marden says with a hush that fills the room. “You may have thought you fell for a Shade, but this woman is not dead.”