"The dead have laws older than time: Do not linger. Do not love. Do not look back. Break one, and you break yourself."
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Amara's POV
Eleanor dropped the bundle of dried herbs into the fire, sending up a plume of acrid smoke that stung my eyes. The flames turned an unnatural blue, licking at the photograph I'd placed on the makeshift altar Aiden laughing at Coney Island, cotton candy stuck to his chin.
"You're sure about this?" she asked, wiping her soot-streaked hands on her jeans.
The pentagram she'd chalked on my living room floor pulsed faintly. I clutched Aiden's ring in my fist, the sapphire biting into my palm. "Just tell me how to help him."
Eleanor sighed. "Ghosts don't stay for kicks, darling. They stay because the living won't let go or because they've got unfinished business." She pointed at the photo as it curled to ash. "Your boy's got both."
The temperature dropped suddenly. Frost crackled across the coffee table as a familiar presence thickened the air.
"Amara."
I whirled. Aiden stood in the doorway, but wrong his edges blurred, his form flickering between the man I loved and something hollow-eyed and ravenous. The black veins now covered half his face.
Eleanor didn't flinch. "Ah. Speak of the devil."
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Aiden's POV
The summoning circle burned like a collar around my throat. Every instinct screamed to flee, but her grief was an anchor, dragging me back.
"Don't do this," I rasped. The shadow inside me writhed at Eleanor's presence. Kill her, it whispered. Take what's ours.
Amara stepped forward, her hand outstretched. "You're hurting. Let us help"
"Us?" I laughed bitterly. The walls trembled. "You brought a witch into our home?"
Eleanor lit a cigarette with a snap of her fingers. "Medium, actually. But I'll take witch." She blew smoke in my direction. "You're breaking Rule Three, Casper."
Amara looked between us. "What rule?"
"Do not linger," Eleanor recited. "Stick around too long, and..." She gestured at my corrupted form. "Well. You see what happens."
The shadow surged. Glass shattered as I slammed Eleanor against the wall. "You know nothing"
"Aiden!" Amara grabbed my arm. Her touch was fire and light, searing through the darkness. I recoiled, watching in horror as frostbite blossomed across her fingers.
Eleanor straightened her coat. "Rule Two: Do not love. Not like this. Not when it poisons them."
Amara cradled her injured hand. "Then what's Rule One?"
Eleanor's smile didn't reach her eyes.
"Do not look back."
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Amara's POV
The truth hit like a freight train.
"You're not haunting me," I whispered. "I'm haunting you."
Aiden's form flickered. The scars receded slightly, revealing the boy I'd fallen for. "Every time you cry for me, I feel it. Every time you whisper my name, I come running." His voice broke. "I can't not come."
Eleanor stubbed out her cigarette. "Most ghosts move on when their business is finished. But love?" She shook her head. "Love makes fools of the dead."
I thought of the unsent proposal, the ring, the way he'd clung to me even as he unraveled. "How do we fix this?"
"There's no we," Aiden said quietly. "Only you."
Eleanor nodded. "Rule Four: The living must release the dead." She pressed a knife into my hand. "Blood breaks bonds."
The blade glinted in the candlelight. Aiden's eyes widened. "No"
"Not like that," Eleanor scoffed. "She just needs to sever the tether." She pointed to my chest, then his. "The heartline connecting you."
Aiden backed away. "It'll destroy what's left of me."
"Better that than what you're becoming," Eleanor said softly.
The shadow in his eyes writhed. Liar, it hissed. She wants to erase you.
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Aiden's POV
I saw the moment she made her choice.
Amara's grip tightened on the knife. Not at me at her own wrist. "Tell me what to do."
Eleanor's instructions faded to static. All I could see was the blade, the way it caught the light like the edge of a promise.
She would bleed for me.
Again.
The shadow roared. Stop her!
But for the first time since my death, I didn't listen.
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Amara's POV
The cut was shallow but burned like hellfire. As my blood dripped onto the chalk lines, the pentagram ignited in silver flames.
Aiden screamed.
Not in pain in release. The darkness peeled away from him in ribbons, dissolving as it hit the circle's light. His form flickered, growing clearer, more him.
Eleanor chanted in a language that hurt my ears. The candles flared.
And then I felt it the snap.
Like a rubber band stretched too tight. Like a heart finally breaking clean.
Aiden gasped, his eyes wide and wondrous. "I remember," he whispered. "The accident. The light. I was... I was happy."
The shadow's final shriek rattled the windows before vanishing.
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Aiden's POV
The weight was gone.
No more hunger. No more whispers. Just... peace.
Amara collapsed to her knees, the knife clattering aside. I reached for her instinctively but my hands passed through her shoulders.
Eleanor caught her. "It's done."
I looked down at my fading form. Not unraveling ascending. "I have to go."
Amara's tears glowed in the candlelight. "I know."
For the first time, the words didn't chain me. They set me free.
"I love you," I said.
And then I stepped into the light.
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"The final rule of the dead is this: Goodbye is not the end. It is the first breath of whatever comes next."