Mia's POV
"She's gone."
The doctor's words echo in my head like a death sentence.
Luna is dead. My best friend. The one person I came back to save. Dead.
I did this. Again.
My legs give out. Adrian catches me before I hit the floor, but I barely feel his arms around me. Everything is numb. Empty. Failed.
"No." The word tears from my throat. "No, I can use my power. I can—"
"Mia, you can't bring back the dead," my mother says gently, appearing beside me. When did she get here? "The power doesn't work like that."
"How do you KNOW?" I'm screaming now, pulling away from Adrian. "Have you tried? Has anyone tried?"
My mother and Adrian exchange looks.
"Actually," Marcus says slowly, appearing from the hallway, "we don't know. No one's manifested healing powers before. And your ability is different from all of ours. Stronger."
Hope flares in my chest like fire. "Then let me try. Let me TRY!"
The doctor is still standing there, looking confused. "I'm sorry, who are all of you? Are you family—"
"Where is she?" I demand. "Where's Luna's body?"
"She's still in the operating room, but—"
I don't wait for permission. I shove past him and burst through the operating room doors.
Luna lies on the table, so pale she looks like a wax figure. Blood stains the sheets. Machines that were beeping are now silent. A nurse is covering her face with a sheet.
"STOP!" I scream.
Everyone freezes. Adrian, Marcus, and my mom rush in behind me.
"You can't be in here—" a surgeon starts.
"GET OUT!" Adrian's voice is pure command. "All of you. NOW."
The medical staff looks at each other, then at Adrian's face. Whatever they see there makes them leave, taking the doctor with them.
Then it's just us. Me and Luna's body.
I approach the table on shaking legs. Pull back the sheet. Luna's face is peaceful but wrong. Too still. Too quiet. This girl who always laughed too loud, who dyed her hair rainbow colors, who stayed up all night with me when my heart was broken.
Dead because of me.
"I don't know how to do this," I whisper. "I don't know how my power works."
"Then feel it," my mother says softly. "Close your eyes. Remember what you felt when you saved Adrian. The moment before the power came."
I close my eyes. Remember Sophia about to shoot. The terror of watching Adrian prepare to die for me. The desperate, aching need to STOP it from happening.
That's when the power came. Not from my hands or my head. From my heart.
From love.
I place my hands on Luna's chest, right over her heart. It's cold and still beneath my palms.
"Come back," I whisper. "Please, Luna. Come back to me. I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry I let you die. But I'm here now. I'm HERE."
Nothing happens.
Tears stream down my face. "I came back from death to save you. So you have to come back too. That's the deal. That's how this works. I save you, and you LIVE."
Still nothing.
"Mia—" Adrian starts gently.
"NO!" I press harder, and suddenly that feeling is there—the warmth building in my chest, spreading down my arms. My hands start glowing golden again, brighter this time. The light spreads from my palms into Luna's body, filling her veins like liquid sun.
"That's it," my mother breathes. "Keep going!"
The light grows brighter, hotter. I can feel Luna's body under my hands—not just the cold flesh, but something deeper. Her soul? Her life force? Whatever makes a person THEM.
And it's still here. Faint. Fading. But not gone yet.
"COME BACK!" I scream, and power EXPLODES from me.
The whole room floods with golden light. Machines start beeping. Luna's body jerks once, twice—
Then she gasps.
Her eyes fly open.
She's breathing.
Luna is ALIVE.
I collapse backward, completely drained. Adrian catches me again. Through blurry vision, I see Luna sitting up, confused, looking around the operating room.
"What—what happened?" Her voice is hoarse. "Why am I in a hospital? Mia? Is that you?"
I'm laughing and crying at the same time. "You're alive. Oh my god, you're alive."
Luna touches her chest where my hands were. "I feel... weird. Like I was far away and something pulled me back. Did you—" She looks at me, really looks, and her eyes widen. "Your hands are glowing."
I look down. She's right. A faint golden shimmer still clings to my skin.
"Long story," I manage.
The door bursts open. The medical staff floods back in, staring in absolute shock at Luna sitting upright on the operating table.
"That's impossible," the surgeon breathes. "She was dead. I called it myself. No heartbeat for four minutes—"
"Looks like you were wrong," Marcus says smoothly, already moving into damage control mode. "It happens. Medical errors. You should probably run some tests before making declarations of death next time."
The staff swarms Luna, checking vitals, asking questions. She looks overwhelmed but alive. Gloriously, impossibly alive.
My mother pulls me aside. "What you just did—that's never been done before. You didn't just use power. You broke a fundamental rule. You brought someone back from death."
"Good," I say fiercely. "Let the Shadow try to stop me now."
But my mother's face is grave. "You don't understand. There are consequences for breaking the rules. The Shadow isn't the only thing you need to worry about anymore. You just got the attention of something much bigger. Something that MAKES the rules."
"I don't care—"
"You should care." My mother grips my shoulders. "Because now they're going to come for you. And when they do, they won't send possessed puppets or move timelines. They'll come themselves."
"Who?" I demand. "Who's going to come?"
Before she can answer, every light in the hospital goes out.
Emergency generators kick in a second later, bathing everything in red emergency lighting. But it's not just the lights. Every machine dies. Every phone. Everything electronic in the entire building just... stops.
Then a voice fills the air. Not from speakers. From everywhere and nowhere at once. Deep. Ancient. Wrong.
"MIA CHEN. YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE COVENANT. YOU HAVE STOLEN BACK A LIFE THAT WAS CLAIMED. THIS CANNOT STAND."
Adrian moves in front of me immediately, but even he looks scared.
"What is that?" Luna asks, her voice small.
"YOU WERE GIVEN NINETY DAYS TO FIX YOUR REGRET. YOU HAVE SUCCEEDED IN THIRTY MINUTES. THIS IS NOT HOW IT WORKS. THIS IS NOT HOW IT HAS EVER WORKED."
"Then maybe it should work this way!" I shout at the ceiling, at the voice, at whatever cosmic force is speaking. "Maybe the rules are WRONG!"
Silence. Heavy. Suffocating.
Then:
"VERY WELL. IF YOU WISH TO CHANGE THE RULES, YOU MUST FACE THE TRIAL. SUCCEED, AND YOUR FRIEND MAY LIVE. YOUR POWER MAY REMAIN. FAIL, AND EVERYONE YOU BROUGHT BACK—INCLUDING YOURSELF—RETURNS TO DEATH. YOU HAVE THREE DAYS TO PREPARE. THE TRIAL BEGINS AT MIDNIGHT ON THE THIRD DAY."
The voice cuts off. The lights flicker back to life. Machines beep back to normal.
But everything has changed.
I look at Adrian, my mother, Marcus. They all look terrified.
"What trial?" I whisper.
"We don't know," my mother says. "No one's ever forced the universe into a trial before. You just challenged the fundamental laws of life and death."
"And in three days, I have to face... what? A test?"
"More like a judgment," Marcus says grimly. "The universe is going to decide if you deserve the power you have. If you deserve to have Luna alive. If you deserve your second chance at all."
"And if I fail?"
"Then everyone who came back dies," Adrian says. "Me. Your mother. Marcus. Anyone who's used the rebirth gift. The universe will take us all back."
My phone suddenly buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out with shaking hands.
It's a text from Ethan: "Mia! Thank god you answered. Listen, I'm working on this new song and I really need your input—"
I stare at the text in disbelief. After everything that just happened, Ethan is still trying to use me?
Another text: "We're a team, remember? You always help me. Just like old times 😊"
Old times. When I was weak. When I let people take from me without fighting back.
But that Mia is dead. And I didn't come back just to be a victim again.
I call him. He answers on the first ring.
"Mia! Thank god. Listen—"
"No," I say simply.
"What?"
"No. I'm not helping you with your song. I'm not your team. I'm not your anything." My voice is cold. Clear. "We were never a team, Ethan. You USED me. You stole my songs and my work and my trust. But I'm done being used."
"You can't be serious—"
"I'm dead serious. Don't call me again. Don't text me. We're done."
I hang up.
For a moment, I just sit there, staring at my phone. That felt good. Really good.
Then it buzzes again. But it's not Ethan.
It's a photo message from an unknown number.
I open it and my blood turns to ice.
It's a picture of Luna. But not current Luna. It's Luna in the operating room, dead on the table, before I brought her back. And written across the image in red text:
"She wasn't supposed to come back. You broke the rules. Now you'll pay. The trial is a trap, Mia. They're going to kill you. And when you die, everyone you love dies with you. Including your precious Luna. And this time, no power can save her. Because I'll make sure of it. -Your Shadow"
Below that, another image appears. A countdown timer.
71:47:33
Seventy-one hours, forty-seven minutes, thirty-three seconds until the trial.
Until I potentially doom everyone I love.
The timer ticks down.
71:47:32
71:47:31
71:47:30
And somewhere in the hospital, I hear Sophia's voice echoing through the halls, that same wrong, possessed voice:
"Tick tock, Mia Chen. Tick tock."