Suddenly I cannot breathe. The shock of the recollection has knocked the air from my lungs. I leap to my feet, gasping. Bram tries to hold me. I know he means to help, but I cannot bear him to touch me now, not now. I fight for breath and gulp it down. My sudden movement has brought on a lurching dizziness, so that I have to clutch the back of the chaise to steady myself. I am aware of the loudness of my own heartbeats as they thud in my ear. I can feel the blood whooshing through my veins. I would almost swear I can feel my body regenerating, replenishing, rebuilding itself, stronger and better than it has ever been. I have the impression I have woken from a month of sleep, and feel utterly rested. All my senses are heightened. I can hear small, nighttime birds far below in the trees of the embankment singing sweetly. I can smell the coffee being brewed in the kitchen of the little bakery two streets away. And I can feel magic. My own magic. Oh, how it fills my body! My whole being fizzes and crackles with it. As the giddiness and panic pass I take a few tentative steps. Around me I can feel my guardian spirits. And I can see them! Not just as I ordinarily can whenever I have called or summoned them, but all those dear to me, here, beside me, as real and bright and full of life as the days when they trod the earth.

Welcome, mistress!

My handsome Cavaliers! My brave soldiers.

Will you walk in the gardens with me, Lilith? Will you pick flowers with me?

Amelia. Dear little Amelia.

So many spirit friends.

“Lilith.” Bram’s voice snags my attention and the spirits recede. “Do you understand what has happened to you?”

Thinking back, stamping down the panic that revisits me when I allow the thought to form in my mind, I know I must make myself face the truth of what has happened.

“I am alive because I have taken the Elixir. You, Louis, you must have worked the spell. And you, Bram, my darling, you must have brought him here.”

Louis shakes his head in wonder. “Oh, Lilith, I have never in my life been so terrified of doing anything.”

I manage a small smile. “It appears you are a fair necromancer, Lord Harcourt.”

“Do you feel well?” Bram asks.