Chapter 4

Since Mom and Dad were adamant about it, Mr. Hawthorne sighed and waved his hand. Two burly men brought over a brazier and a set of silver needles.

The soulfire poison was ignited, and acrid green smoke immediately filled my nostrils. Inside my sea of consciousness, Lissy let out a piercing scream.

"It hurts! Help, Finn!"

Finnian turned away, his expression pained. Then he gritted his teeth and took a needle himself.

"Romy, this is all your fault. You're forcing Lissy to suffer with you!"

The long, thick silver needle plunged mercilessly into my head. The unbearable physical and spiritual agony instantly tore apart the barrier separating our two souls.

The pain forced me out of the depths of my consciousness. My soul was torn out of the body.

Beneath the cold moonlight, it began to dissolve bit by bit, as though someone had poured sulfuric acid over it.

I writhed on the floor in agony. With every breath I drew of the poisonous soulfire smoke, it felt like my soul was being ripped apart.

Finnian and my parents were all stunned to see the agonizing torture I was being put through. They seemed unprepared for how horrific the rite of soul severance turned out to be.

Out of nowhere, memories came flooding back to them. They recalled all the ways I'd spent the past 18 years doing everything I could to please them.

When I had a fever, I made my own soup. To save up money to get Finnian a birthday gift, I washed clothes for other people even in the dead of winter.

Mom's heart clenched, and her legs gave way. After collapsing to her knees, she frantically crawled toward the altar and reached for the bowl of water from the Morrow River.

"Stop! Make it stop!" she tearfully begged Mr. Hawthorne. "Can't you just let her drink the water? Please stop burning her soul!"

Mr. Hawthorne shook his head. "Once the rite begins, the soul is damaged beyond repair. It can't be stopped. She can no longer return to the Morrow River."

Finnian stiffened, his feet rooted to the spot. When he saw my bleeding face, his eyes finally flickered with panic.

"Romy!"

He tried to approach me, but the foreboding air of death radiating from my soul drove him back.

"Why didn't you come out sooner?" he questioned in a trembling voice. Even now, he was still trying to shift the blame onto me. "If you'd just behaved yourself, you wouldn't have had to suffer like that."

Just before my soul completely dissolved, I looked at my parents and Finnian, their faces stricken with terror as they reached out desperately to grab me.

"I know that in the previous life, all of you regretted keeping me," I said abruptly.

Finnian's hand froze in midair, his eyes widening sharply.

"What?"

Looking at their stunned expressions, I managed a smile. "You get your wish now."

"No!"

Mom, Dad, and Finnian let out anguished cries and dropped heavily to their knees.