Chapter 123

“Emily?”

My own voice sounded broken. I didn’t move. I didn’t even breathe.

I was terrified that if I blinked, she would vanish and I’d wake up in that cold, empty bed again with the ache of our torn bond burning in my chest.

But she stayed. She stood in the middle of our room, looking like the moonlight had shaped itself into her body. She was transparent, a shimmering silver ghost, and still the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

“Emily…” My voice was a wreck. “Are you really here?”

She looked down at her hands, her face a mix of panic and wonder. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I think…”

I moved toward her before I could stop myself. “Don’t disappear,” I rasped.

Her eyes filled with tears instantly. “Nathan…”

That one word nearly brought me to my knees. I reached for her face, desperate to feel her skin, but my fingers passed through her cheek like smoke.

“No.”

I tried again. And again.