Page 37 of Devil's Doom

I let the magic flow. I pour it into him, suffusing his empty well like I would an egg, and I bid his heart to beat, his lungs to breathe, his blood to flow.Live,I command.Live and be well. Take this magic and make it yours.

For the longest moment, nothing happens. Desperation tries to take root in my heart, but I bat it aside like I would a pesky fly.No.It will work. It must. All I have space for is hope.

Dar jerks, throwing his tiny arms up. He takes a deep breath and lets out a loud, ear-splitting wail, like a newborn baby, except worse, because he’s already four months old and so much stronger for that.

“There you are.” My voice shakes with relief as I welcome him back into the world.

I look him over, checking his pulse and muscle strength. He seems completely normal, and as I take him into my arms, murmuring softly, he calms down until his sobs become quiet whimpers. I smile, looking up at Lech.

When our eyes meet, the upir’s widen, but not in awe or joy. They widen in a bottomless, horrible terror. He scrambles away from me until the back of his head hits the wall. There he sits, his hands clenched into fists, breathing ragged. He doesn’t blink, as if he’s terrified to lose sight of me even for a moment.

“What’s wrong?” I ask him, confused. “He’s fine, look.”

Lech shakes his head frantically, his skin so pale, his freckles seem much too dark in comparison. He opens his mouth as if to say something but only gulps in a shaky breath, staring at me like I’m some sort of monster.

“Lech, what’s wrong?”

He swallows thickly and finally speaks, his voice hoarse. “What the fuck are you?”

I recoil, shushing the baby on instinct when he whines. Lech’s eyes drop to the boy’s head pressed to my chest and then back up, some of his terror abating, though he’s still wary.

“I’m Alina.” My voice hollows with the lie. “And I promise you, he’s all right. His soul lingered. It’s not… You were probably taught it’s the breath, Perun’s breath that’s life within us, and with it gone, there’s only death, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes, the soul stays on, just for a moment. And you can… You can bring them back.”

He shakes his head. “No. You don’t understand. This… They won’t just try you for this. They will annihilate you and everyone you ever touched. Alina, this is… This is beyond heresy. You broke the law.”

I huff with disdain. “The law. Right. Well, nobody has to know, do they?”

Lech suddenly laughs, but his laughter is bitter and hard. He looks at me with tight hostility, and I don’t understandwhy.

“You asked me to do something!” I hiss, keeping my voice low. “So I did. What else did you expect?”

“Not for you to go breaking the oldest law of creation!” he snaps back. “Alina, this is… It’s worse than black magic! It’s… Not even Weles did it, ever. This is beyond evil. You… I don’t even want to think about what you’ve done to this boy. His fate was to die tonight and become a swallow in the Great Oak, and after that, to come back as another person. But you… You broke his cycle. What will he be now?”

“A boy and then a man,” I say through clenched teeth. “And one day, maybe a hero. Maybe once fate doesn’t control you anymore, you can become anything.”

A shiver goes down my spine when I comprehend the truth of my words. I’m just like Dar. I evaded deathtwice.I evaded fate, and now I have no destiny to fulfill but for the one I choose myself.

And I am not evil, because I don’t choose it. I choose to be good, at least to those I love.

“Is Rada still asleep?” I ask him, my voice hard.

He flinches, as if he just remembered her. His legs shaking, Lech gets up and peeks inside the room. “Yes. She slept through it.”

“Good. We won’t tell her what happened. As far as she’s concerned, Dar slept through the night in perfect comfort. You know losing him would break her.”

That seems to affect Lech like a slap. He looks at me, wide-eyed and silent, until I come over with the baby.

“Look for yourself. Please. He’s fine. He’s warm, he’s breathing—he’s still Dar. We saved her a lot of heartbreak.”

Lech takes the boy gingerly, rocking him in his arms. Dar, already half-asleep, presses his face to the upir’s chest, clutching his shirt in his pudgy fist. Lech shudders once, and when he looks up, his eyes are filled with tears.

“See? He’s all right. Rada never needs to know,” I murmur.

He nods, and I wipe his tear away with a quick touch of my thumb. Lech sniffs, and then he shakes, weeping silently as he does his best not to startle the baby. I take his hand and lead him to my room, sitting him down on my bed. I stroke his head and back, letting him hold Dar until it sinks in. He’s alive. All will be well.

When Lech stops shaking, I swallow thickly and decide to share some of my truth. Not all, but maybe enough so he understands why I did it.

“It’s not true that it never happened before,” I whisper. “The devil did it once, to a mortal woman who died of wounds and heat stroke. It wasn’t so easy with her. He had to remake her because her body was broken. But she lived. He brought her back.”

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