Chapter 111: Ripples of Resurrection

Seb's grip on my arm was a stern warning, but Spike's return flooded me with emotions too overwhelming to heed it fully. Yes, I knew the lore, the stories of dark entities hitching a ride back with the resurrected; I knew that more than anyone, as it had once cost me so much, but every fibre in my being screamed that this was different. I couldn’t feel anything malevolent in Spike; all I felt was joy and unimaginable relief.

“Luna, we have to be careful,” Seb insisted, his eyes scanning Spike suspiciously as if an evil spirit might rear its head at any moment. “You know what bringing back someone from the dead could mean.”

He wasn't wrong to worry. The legends were clear: resurrection was unnatural, a tear in the fabric of life and death that could let in all manner of darkness. But my heart refused to let the happiness of seeing Spike alive again be tainted by fear.

Spike, now comfortably wrapped in the robe Seb had brought, seemed as bewildered as any of us. "Look, I've been through