A book.
It is massive.
Bound in something dark and ancient.
Not leather.
Something worse.
The edges of its pages gleam with silver runes, shifting, changing, breathing.
I know what it is.
I know what my father was searching for.
A way to break death.
A way to undo the final price.
An unfinished ritual.
I reach out, my fingers hovering over the worn cover.
The air around it is thick, charged, waiting.
A single drop of blood from my fingertips falls onto the surface.
The book shudders.
The runes flare brighter.
And the whispers begin.
They slither through my mind—a thousand voices, a thousand promises.
A spell meant to cheat death.
This is what Lartina meant.
A spell meant to bring back the lost.
Seraphina.
I swallow hard, my pulse hammering against my ribs.
I still feel her blood on my hands.
Her warmth fading.
Her breath gone.
But if this book is what I think it is?—
If it holds the power my father died searching for?—
Then maybe, I can bring her back.
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