“Stop her!” Natasha takes a step toward me before crying out and bending at the waist. Others join her. And then I feel it. It’s like all the new power inside of me is boiling away and turning into steam that’s leaking out my pores. The pain of it is so intense that I fall to my hands and knees. And then, just as quickly, it’s gone. The stone in the cuff on my wrist shatters and crumbles to the ground. Then the jewels in the crown on my head and finally those around my throat explode, the tiny fragments nicking my skin.

Almost everyone else is on the ground too.

The loss of so much power makes me feel hollowed out and empty, and I’d known it for only a moment. I look around at my friends. Reina’s feeling her chest as if there’s a hole there. Aristelle retches.

I pull myself to my feet. It’s over. Some of the magicians are testing their powers. Aristelle sparks a small flame on the tip of her finger. She squints at it like she’s trying to make it grow, but nothing happens. I can feel that familiar buzz—that promise of a hint of magic without all the horror.

I don’t care about the power, though.

I turn toward Roman’s tattered, blood-splattered shirt. It’s all I can focus on. It feels like there are fangs in my neck, tearing me apart as I pick my way over to him. His eyes are open, and, bracing for the emptiness, I force myself to look into them. I’ll let the memory haunt me if it means seeing him one more time.

He blinks. His brown eyes focus on my face.

Tears break from me with the same force the magic did. I begin to sob as he pushes himself to his knees and wraps his arms around me. I can’t stop. I’m used to things not being okay, and he squeezes me so I know it’s real.

“You’re not dead,” I choke out.

“No.” I’m pressed against him so tightly, I feel the rumble of his voice in his chest. “It would appear like I’m not dead at all.”

This makes me stop crying. I pull back and stare up at his face. He widens his mouth and shows me his teeth like he’s going to make his fangs drop.

Nothing.

He closes his mouth.

“You’re not a vampire?”

“I think I stopped being one when Numerius died, and then I would have died as well, but I felt your magic in me, healing me.”

I glance around. It looks like I healed more people than I thought.

But not everyone. I didn’t bring people back from the dead.

My eyes land on Julia.

And then the heap of magicians where Numerius fought and died.