Emma’s silver light vanished like a blown-out candle.

"I know what I have to do," she said, landing on the star-sand beach with a soft thud.

Kael rushed toward her. "Emma, whatever you’re thinking—"

"I have to die."

The words hit everyone like a punch to the stomach. Marcus dropped his sword. Future Emma gasped. Even the Necro-Sovereign stopped its ritual for a moment.

"What?" Kael’s voice cracked.

Emma wiped tears from her eyes. Her hands were shaking, but her voice stayed steady. "Think about it, Dad. I can bring people back from the dead, but I’ve never actually been dead myself. How can I understand what they really want if I don’t know what death feels like?"

"That’s crazy!" Ronan shouted. "You’ll just... be dead!"

"No." Emma shook her head. "I’ll be dead for a little while. Then I’ll come back. But while I’m there, I can learn the truth about what the dead really need."

Shadow Emma flew closer. "In my timeline, I tried that. I died and stayed dead."

"Because you gave up your humanity first," Emma said. "I won’t do that. I’ll keep my love for you, Dad, and for everyone alive. That love will pull me back."

Kael grabbed her shoulders. "I won’t let you do this. There has to be another way."

Emma looked into his eyes. She saw all the times he’d read her bedtime stories. All the times he’d bandaged her scraped knees. All the times he’d told her she was brave when she felt scared.

"I love you, Dad," she whispered.

Then she raised her hand.

"Emma, no—"

Time stopped.

Kael froze mid-step, one hand reaching for her. Marcus froze with his mouth open. The wind stopped blowing. Even the crashing waves of the strange ocean stood still like a photograph.

Emma had frozen everyone except herself.

"I’m sorry," she said to Kael’s frozen face. "But this is the only way to save everyone without losing myself."

She turned toward the Necro-Sovereign. It was the only other thing still moving.

"You want to kill people?" Emma called out. "Start with me."

The Necro-Sovereign tilted its hooded head. "Interesting. You wish to die?"

"I need to understand death. Really understand it. Not just bringing people back, but what it’s like to be gone." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"And you think this will help you defeat me?"

Emma smiled, but it was a sad smile. "Maybe. Maybe not. But at least I’ll know the truth about what the dead actually want."

The Necro-Sovereign raised one bony hand. Black energy began to swirl around it like smoke. "Very well. But know this, child—once you enter my realm, you play by my rules."

"We’ll see about that."

The black energy shot toward Emma like lightning.

She didn’t try to block it or run away. She stood perfectly still and let it hit her.

Pain exploded through her entire body. It felt like ice and fire at the same time. Like being torn apart and put back together wrong. Like drowning in darkness that had teeth.

Emma screamed.

Then everything went quiet.

Her body fell to the star-sand with a soft sound. Her chest stopped moving. Her eyes stared at nothing.

Emma was dead.

But Emma was also somewhere else.

She opened her eyes in a place that looked like a giant library. But instead of books, the shelves were full of glowing orbs. Each orb pulsed with soft light.

"Welcome to the True Death," said a voice behind her.

Emma spun around. A woman stood there, tall and beautiful, with long silver hair and kind eyes. She wore simple white clothes and had no shoes.

"Who are you?" Emma asked.

"I am the Keeper of Souls. I watch over everyone who has ever died." The woman smiled. "And you, little necromancer, have made quite a mess of things."

"I was trying to help—"

"I know." The Keeper walked to one of the shelves and touched a glowing orb. "But you’ve been listening to lies. The Necro-Sovereign has been pretending to be the dead, making you think they all want to return."

Emma felt stupid. "So none of those voices were real?"

"Oh, they were real. Just not who you thought they were." The Keeper turned back to Emma. "They were echoes. Shadows of people who died badly and got stuck between life and death. They’re in pain, yes, but bringing them back to life won’t help them."

"Then what will?"

"Letting them go. Helping them move on to whatever comes after death. But the Necro-Sovereign feeds on their pain. It keeps them trapped so it can stay powerful."

Emma looked around at all the glowing orbs. "Are these the real dead people?"

"Some of them. The ones who died peacefully. They don’t want to come back, Emma. They’re happy here."

Emma touched one of the orbs. Suddenly, she could feel what was inside it. Love. Joy. Peace. A sense of being home after a long, hard journey.

"They really don’t want to return," she whispered.

"No. But those trapped echoes do. They just don’t understand that what they really want is to move on, not go back."

Emma felt a weight lift from her shoulders. She didn’t have to bring back billions of people. She just had to help the trapped ones find peace.

"How do I do that?"

"You already know how. You’ve always had the power to guide souls to where they belong. You just thought that meant bringing them back to life."

Emma thought about all the times she’d felt that pulling sensation. She’d thought it meant the dead wanted to return. But maybe it meant they wanted to move forward.

"I can help them go to the next place," she realized.

"Yes. But there’s a problem."

"What?"

The Keeper’s face grew worried. "The Necro-Sovereign isn’t just feeding on trapped souls anymore. It’s planning something much worse."

"What?"

"It wants to trap every living person’s soul while they’re still alive. Turn the entire universe into its feeding ground."

Emma’s heart stopped. "How?"

"By using you. Your power connects to all souls, living and dead. If it can corrupt that power while you’re in its realm..."

"It can control every soul that exists," Emma finished.

"Exactly. And right now, you’re in its realm. It’s probably already started trying to change you."

Emma looked down at her hands. They looked normal, but she could feel something different. A cold sensation creeping up her arms like frost.

"How long do I have?"

"Minutes, maybe less. You need to get back to your body right now."

"But how? I’m dead!"

"Think of something that makes you want to be alive. Something stronger than death itself."

Emma closed her eyes and thought of Kael. Of his worried face when she’d frozen him. Of all the times he’d protected her. Of how much she still needed her dad.

She felt a tugging sensation, like being pulled by an invisible rope.

But then something grabbed her ankle.

Emma looked down and screamed.

A hand made of shadows was wrapped around her leg. More shadow hands were reaching up from cracks in the library floor.

"Going somewhere?" The Necro-Sovereign’s voice echoed all around her.

"Let go of me!"

"I don’t think so. You came to my realm willingly. Now you stay forever."

The shadow hands began pulling Emma down into the cracks. The Keeper reached for her, but more shadows wrapped around Emma’s arms.

"Emma!" the Keeper shouted. "Remember what you’re fighting for!"

But as Emma sank into the darkness, she felt the cold spreading through her whole body. Her memories of being alive started to fade. Her love for Kael felt distant and strange.

"Yes," the Necro-Sovereign whispered in her ear. "Forget the living. You belong to death now."

Emma tried to remember why that was wrong, but the thoughts slipped away like water through her fingers.

The last thing she saw before the darkness swallowed her was the glowing orbs on the library shelves going out, one by one.

And in the real world, her dead body began to glow with black energy instead of silver.

Kael was still frozen in time, unable to save her.

Unable to even see what was happening to his daughter.

Emma was lost in the realm of death, and the Necro-Sovereign had won.