"No,'' I whisper, biting back screams as the tendril constricts tighter, making my ribs feel like they are about to crack.

The necromancer laughs, the sound like glass being chewed. "Are you stupid, girl? Do you even realize what I could do to you?''

He pulls me closer until the stench of death makes my eyes water and I can see the slime coating his teeth.

"I could kill you in the most painful way imaginable. And once you're finally and blissfully dead, I'll use your body like a puppet. I'll make you walk to your sister's room and slit her throat with your own two hands. And then, I'll send you back to that shithole you called a home,'' he shakes me, my head snapping back and forth. "And make you do the same to your pathetic father.''

Terror turns my blood to ice. I have no doubt he's telling the truth. Tears streak down my cheeks as I imagine the horror in my family's eyes as I slaughter them like animals.

Pain suddenly tears through my stomach and I scream, arching away from the scorching knife of agony but the necromancer holds me tight. I make the mistake of looking down only to see him stabbing me with the jagged blade that it his finger. I can feel blood soaking into my dress, running down my legs and dripping to pool on the immaculate marble floor.

Fire and ice simultaneously pulse from the knife of shadow that is moving slowly, torturously slicing through my insides. Pain sucks the air from my lungs as he moves another inch and my screams echo through the empty ballroom.

Then he's pulling away and licking my blood from his finger with that black tongue, saying something that I can't hear over the ringing in my ears. My head rolls forward and I'm staring at the scarlet pool growing beneath me. Too much blood is leaving me, too fast. I can feel my life literally pulsing out of my body with each thump of my heart.

The necromancer shakes me again, snapping my head back so I'm looking at him. "Don't think I'll be letting you die that easily. I intend for those guts of yours to be fresh when I devour them."

I'm in too much pain, to woozy from blood loss to react. My heartbeat sounds sluggish in my ears.

He snarls, a sound of frustration."Did you hear me, bitch? You're going to be begging for me to-"

There's a wet thumping sound and he cuts off abruptly. I drag my eyes up, which takes more effort than it should, and my heart stops. The hilt of a knife is sticking out from his face. I stare, the tentacle that's holding me slithering away slowly and I fall to the ground. I don't think I have the strength to get to my feet.

My name is being shouted and I look up to see Hale charging across the room towards me while Kassia frantically pulls another knife from her belt. My heart sinks. If she's grabbing another knife, that means the one that hit the necromancer either wasn't her silver knife or it didn't work.

And sure enough, the necromancer's engaged howl tears through the ballroom and then he's shooting through the air at Kassia. I try to watch as she dives behind a pillar, narrowly avoiding a whip of shadow that lashes at her, but darkness is eating away at my vision.

Hot hands press against my freezing face. I didn't even realize my eyes were closed until I have to use every bit of my strength to force them open again.

"Talia, oh gods, Talia," Hale's whispering, smoothing my hair back from my face. I can feel his fingers shaking against my skin. He looks down at my wound and his face jerks, instantly going bloodless. "Oh gods, oh gods-" he's muttering over and over as he rips off his jacket and presses it against my stomach, the pressure making me fresh waves of pain shoot through me.

"Okay Talia, I need you to hold this down, keep pressure on it. I'm going to pick you up and-"

"Hale," I interrupt weakly. He shakes his head, knowing me well enough to understand what I'm going to say, and slides his arm under me.

"Come on Talia, just listen to me for once and help me get you out of here?"

I can hear the anger biting at his words and I almost smile. Frustrated with me until the very end. How fitting.

He lifts me into his arms and I bite back a cry of pain. I can feel the salty sting of my tears on my cheeks.

"Hale." His beautiful green eyes meet mine and even now, my heart lurches. "Promise me you'll protect Willow. The journals, they're important. Promise me-"

I cough, tasting blood on my tongue, dripping over my lips.

I need him to say it. I need to die knowing that Willow will have someone to protect her, someone to look out for her. I wish I'd had more time to tell him about how special she is, to make him understand how vital it is that she lives. This world needs a light like her in it.

And she'll need someone like him, someone who will tell her no and challenge her. Someone to love her like a sibling. And he will, I know he will. Willow is impossible to not love.

My heart aches as I consider the beautiful relationship they could have that I won't live to see.

Hale just keeps running for the door, so close yet so far away. "Talia, I-"

Kassia goes flying by us with a scream, smashes into a pillar and slumps to the floor, unmoving. The necromancer is next to us instantly, in a flurry of shadows and freezing wind that sends us flying apart.

I lay where I've fallen, unable to move on the cold marble, my blood smeared across it like an angry red slash.

"Are you actually this stupid?" the necromancer taunts, swinging Hale into the nearest wall with a bone jarring thud. "Surely you can't be idiotic enough to throw away your life, just for a chance at a girl to warm your bed?"

He smashes Hale into a marble pillar and I hear something crunch as he grunts in pain. "You heroic types are so predictable and pathetic. Always rushing in without thinking, jumping at the chance for people to fawn over you and tell you how brave-" He smashes into a wall. "How self sacrificing-" The floor this time. "You are."

Hale is limp, blood gushing from his nose, one eye swollen shut.

I manage to get to my feet, Hale's bloody jacket forgotten on the floor, one hand pressed against my stomach and the blood soaked silk, the other clutching the silver knife I freed from its sheath. The necromancer is so busy gloating and playing with Hale that he doesn't notice me staggering behind him. It's only a few steps but it feels like a league.

I stumble the last step and lunge at him, knowing I'm going to die tasting the satisfaction of taking him with me.

Out of no where, I'm hit from the side and go sailing through the air. I crash into the buffet table, glass and ice shattering beneath me, biting into my flesh. I barely feel it.

All I can focus on is the knife still clutched in my hand.

I crawl on all fours and lift my head to see what hit me.

The man and woman that the necromancer killed are stumbling towards me. My stomach squirms at the sight of the necromancer controlling them.

Grotesque and misshapen, leaving a trail of blood behind them, they lurch at me. The woman's head is twisted so far that it's barely connected, but I can still see her soulless eyes.

Kassia lunges into view and decapitates the man with one swift stroke. Hardly any blood spurts as he topples over then starts to get to his feet again, movements clumsy.

"Run!" she screams, throwing herself at the woman, a whirlwind of golden curls and sharp steel.

But one of the tentacles of darkness has already slithered over and wrapped itself around my neck in an icy noose.

"I'm getting tired of you, you sneaky little bitch," the necromancer snarls as it yanks me through the air to him. The tips of my toes are brushing the ground and the tendril around my neck is so tight that all I can manage are tiny little gasps of air.

But I can see a slash of light on his shoulder, from when my knife must have just grazed him. My gut tightens. Silver can injure him.

"Say goodbye to your hero boy over there. And take comfort in knowing that after I've killed you, I'll walk your corpse over and make you peel the flesh from his bones."

He spins me in the air so I'm looking at Hale, who is slowly, painstakingly crawling his way over to us. The noose around my neck tightens.

I choke loudly, tearing at the slimy cold tentacle strangling the life out of me with my left hand but my nails slip right off, finding no purchase. In my right, I still hold the silver knife, hidden in my skirts.

I spit something at the necromancer, intentionally unintelligible.

"Trying to curse me with your final breath?" he laughs, pulling me closer, close enough to touch. "Let's hear it then. Maybe if you beg for your life, I'll end you quickly."

"Rot in hell," I wheeze, then plunge my dagger into his heart.

There's a brief moment of complete silence while the necromancer and I both stare at the dagger protruding from him. Silence, like the whole world is holding its breath.

Everything explodes in a wave of cold and darkness. Screams and shadows. Whirling shapes. Numb limbs and pain.

It's too much at once and I let the darkness take me.