Fate Mate

Chapter 48

No—it wasn't Sophia. Not really. Sophia was dead. This was...

"You're a ghost?" I gasped, salty tears and mucus seeping into the corners of my lips.

Sophia chuckled. She certainly didn't look like a traditional ghost. She wore a signature pair of black jeans, a navy-blue cropped tank-top, and white converse high-tops. She looked like she was preparing to watch an episode of the Bachelorette with Dylan, and yet...

I narrowed my eyes and noticed the slightest waver within Sophia's form. She wasn't a solid human. If I looked closely enough, I saw the outline of a tree behind her abdomen. Nonetheless, she shrugged, "I s'pose I am."

"How?" I whispered, wiping furiously at my tear-filled eyes as if that might make Sophia disappear. Perhaps this was just sleep deprivation. Perhaps it was a cruel joke that my mind was playing on me. She didn't disappear.

"I died. You died," she said, gesturing between us. "There are bound to be consequences to coming back to life. Didn't Sarah warn you that this might happen?"

I blinked, scrambling from my knees back to my feet so that I could draw nearer to my dead friend. "N-no, she didn't. She—Wait, Sarah? You've seen Sarah? And Lyra?"

Sophia grinned, and the expression was happy—peaceful, even. "Finally got to meet my niece." Pride glowed in her blue eyes, and my mouth opened in disbelief. "Sarah told me that she found you in the afterlife and guided you back to the talisman. I would've come to guide you as well, but I'd just been killed, and, well, death is disorienting."

"Right," I agreed, breathless. How could Sophia joke? How could she be so nonchalant? She'd died. She had been murdered, because of me.

As if she could hear my thoughts, Nolan's little sister shook her head. "Don't blame yourself for what happened. I speak for every soul that died on that battlefield when I say that we do not blame you."

My gaze swept across the other headstones. "C-can I see them, as well?"

No matter how hard I searched, no other figure formed. Only Sophia stood in front of me. "I suppose, if you summoned them in the same way that you summoned me."

"I didn't summon you," I replied, shaking my head. This was too much to take in.

"Not on purpose," Sophia emphasized, picking at a hangnail on her thumb. "But you were thinking about me pretty damn hard. I decided to drop in and pay a visit."

It was astonishing, really. Sophia was here. She had come back, at least partially. I gasped, "Nolan! I have to go find Nolan! And Dominic, he's here, too! They'll want to see you and—"

"No, Charlie," Sophia shook her head. "You're the only one that can see us. You died, and you remained in the afterlife for a long time. The veil between worlds has thinned for you, offering you a foothold."

Her words settled over me. This was a consequence of staying in the afterlife for too long. This was the price that I paid. What would have happened if I'd stayed even a moment longer? Would I be able to see every spirit as it passed through worlds, without summoning them? I shook my head. It was too much to comprehend.

I wiped the wetness beneath my nose. "Sophia, I am s-so sorry," I whispered, my voice cracking as I fought back tears.

She smiled again, and I thought that physical warmth might have radiated from her expression. "Charlie, don't feel sorry for me. For any of us," Sophia said, reaching out a hand to brush against my cheek. If she touched me, I couldn't feel anything, but the gesture was comforting, nonetheless. "Don't you know that we are in a better place?"