Chapter 79

Emily’s POV

Time had run out.

The Luna stepped back, and suddenly, I wasn't a ghost anymore. I was kneeling over him. My palms were pressed against the jagged wound in his stomach. His blood was hot—too hot—and it coated my fingers, sticky and real.

I panicked. "I can't—"

"You can," she whispered from the shadows.

Three cold, thin voices echoed through the dark: “A life for a life.”

"No," I snapped. My voice shook, but the defiance was mine. "Not a life. Not all of it."

The darkness went still. I closed my eyes and reached deep into my chest. I looked for something deeper—something white, quiet, and endless.

I pushed that feeling into my hands.

Pain answered instantly. It was brutal. It felt like hooks sinking under my ribs and yanking. I cried out, my back arching.

The wound beneath my hands started to pull together. Slowly. Too slowly. The agony spread through my arms, turning my fingers numb. My lungs fe