The silence that followed was deafening. Emily was gone, reduced to nothing more than a memory, and yet the weight of what had just happened pressed down on me like a thousand tons. I held onto James, my fingers gripping his shirt tightly as though I was afraid he might disappear too. My heart pounded in my chest, the adrenaline still surging through me, but the reality of what we had just done was starting to sink in.
Emily was gone. The curse, however, was still alive within James.
I pulled back slightly, enough to look at him. His face was pale, and sweat clung to his skin. He was breathing heavily, his eyes clouded with exhaustion. But more than that, there was something else there, something that made my stomach twist with fear. The darkness I had seen in him before—the curse's presence—was still there, lurking just beneath the surface, waiting for its chance to take hold.
"James," I whispered, my voice shaking despite myself. "Are you okay?"
