“No. Way.” Gweyn shook her head so hard her hair whipped across her face. “You are insane if you think I’m helping a wraith.” She stepped away from Pekorin’s icepick like it was irradiated.

“Don’t be like that,” Yuzuru said. “You haven’t even met her. She’s actually pretty nice. Did you say she was a wraith?”

“Wait a minute.” Taiga cut in. “You named her?”

“Someone else did," Yuzuru said.

Gweyn rolled her eyes. “This insistence to insert oneself into other people’s business is exactly what my mother warned me about.”

“Your mother is mean,” Yuzuru said.

“I’m hungry,” said Pekorin, looking around their little camp. The stars faded from oncoming daylight, but the sky had not yet shed the darkest hues of blue.

“Don’t even think about it.” Taiga stood between Pekorin and the kids. “I’ll rip you apart.”

Pekorin ran behind Yuzuru.

“This is getting out of hand.” Yuzuru held the icepick up. In the firelight, the steel took on a mercurial quality, shimmering with the colors of dawn. “It doesn’t matter what she is. She’s hurting the people here to survive, so we need to find a way for her to not do that.” He turned to Gweyn. “And I’ve been led to believe you know something about this pick that can help us.”

“What makes you say that?” Gweyn asked.

“I met a bartender who told me."

"Well, she's lying."

“My solution is pretty effective,” Taiga said. “She won’t be hungry if she’s dead.”

“Good idea.” Gweyn picked up a branch and started sharpening it.

Yuzuru snatched it from her. "Come on, you two."

"You come on," snapped Gweyn. “Playing hero by yourself is one thing, but dragging us into it is another. Why should we waste our time helping a dead girl find eternal happiness?”

“Because...” said Yuzuru, smiling clumsily. “We can?”

Everyone waited for him to say more, but he didn’t.

“That’s it?” Taiga’s mouth fell open. “You’re worse than Honoka.”

"We do have that in common," Yuzuru said.

Gweyn took her stick from him and threw it into the dying fire. “Alright, alright,” she said. “Give it here, lover-boy.”

Yuzuru cheered. He handed Gweyn the pick and clasped her hands in his. “Admit it. Deep down, you’re a hero.”

Gweyn rolled her eyes, and the scene of last night popped into Yuzuru’s mind. He saw the fake Gweyn coming closer, hair drawn loose, lips parted to kiss…

He let go, feeling flushed, and pretended to fiddle with the string of his backpack.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"Listen here now..." Gweyn ordered Yuzuru to stand next to Pekorin, and placed herself half a step away in front of them. She held the icepick tightly, knuckles white around the wooden grip. “We only have one shot at this. Are you sure you want to risk it?”

“Yes,” Yuzuru answered. Next to him, Pekorin didn't seem to know what was going on.

“It’ll be weird,” Gweyn warned.

“I’m ready for weird," Yuzuru said.

Pekorin still said nothing, but bowed her head and clasped her hands together in a gesture of solemnity. Framed in the rising sun, her skin glowed like pale aquamarine. Her hair was a waterfall of white marble, curling at the base of her neck.

Gweyn raised the pick to her finger, drew out a drop of blood, and smeared it on the inside of Yuzuru’s wrist. “Give me your hand, Pe… you.”

Pekorin looked to Yuzuru for confirmation. He nodded. Gingerly, the ghostly girl placed her fingers in Gweyn’s.

Raising the blood-stained pin to Pekorin’s finger, Gweyn repeated the process. If it was a shock to see a wraith bleed, she didn’t show it. She repeated the process with Yuzuru last.

“This is some very elaborated blood work,” Yuzuru remarked.

Gweyn raised the icepick. Their combined blood fell from the thin steel in a steady drip, drip. dripping, hissing as it hit the hot charcoal. Finally, her eyes flickered up to Yuzuru’s. There seemed to be doubt inside those red pupils, but he didn’t get a chance to ask because the pick was suddenly shoved into his chest.

Yuzuru stood there, blinking in surprise. “Huh?” he said, but his voice came out as a wheeze. Shock ran through his body, numbing his fingers. He lost contact with his legs. Just before he crumpled, he saw Taiga springing on Gweyn, claws unsheathed.

And then he was looking up at the sky. He heard a scream from somewhere, but his ears were filled with someone else’s voice.

It was Pekorin's. She was leaning over him, hands cupped around his face. The blue sky bled into orange, highlighting rainbows through her white hair.

She was thanking him, and as Yuzuru stared, the wraith’s skin burst into fireflies, drifting down into him. He closed his eyes as a tremendous force propelled through his veins, launching him from the ground. He staggered forward, stopping right into Taiga’s arms.

“Lay down!" she cried. "Let me see the-”

When he heard her gasp, Yuzuru opened his eyes. Taiga was holding onto the pick, except it only had the handle left. She was pressing her fingers all over his chest, asking, “The wound. Where is it?”

Yuzuru looked down, then around the camp. “Where is Pekorin?” he asked.

A few feet away, Gweyn sat up. She touched her cheek and grimaced as her fingers came back red.

Taiga pulled the girl up by the back of her cape. “You better start explaining.”

“Did I not warn you?" Gweyn replied.

“No, no,” said Yuzuru. “You said it’d be weird. That was horrifying. Am I dead? Where is Pekorin?”

Gweyn pried herself loose from Taiga and dabbed the corner of her lip with her sleeve. “Gee. Thanks for worrying about me, by the way. Makes me feel so included.”

“You stabbed me,” Yuzuru said.

“You have a stab-able face.”

“That’s just…” Yuzuru was at a loss for words. He felt something moving on his chest and instinctively drew a hand over the skin. There was a tiny divot where the pick went through him. “Pekorine?” he asked.

“I’m here," she replied.

Yuzuru looked up, startled. Taiga had gone to her kids, but Gweyn was still here.

“Did you hear that?” he asked her.

Gweyn picked up the icepick’s handle and tossed it into the waning campfire. “Congratulations. Now you can keep her around forever,” she said. "The pick was a ceremonious dagger used to bind wayward wraiths to physical hosts. Now that she's bound to you, she won't have to feed on anyone else's soul ever again."

"Wait a minute," Yuzuru said. "She's feeding on me?"

Sounds of shouting cut over the horizon. From the village, men were swarming out over the hills. They waved their construction equipment above their heads, and all of them were still dressed in their night clothes.

“Unless you die, of course,” Gweyn said, grabbing two of the kids and tucking them under her arms. “Still think you should’ve stuck your nose into where it didn’t belong, traveler?”

Yuzuru took one more look at the approaching mob, then scooped Leona up into his arms. "We'll talk about this later," he promised as he ran behind Gweyn. A second later, Taiga was beside him with her last kid.

“That girl deserves to be punched again,” she told him. “I’m beginning to think she knew everything was going play out like this. It makes me wonder what else she’s not telling us.”

“Probably,” Yuzuru said, watching Gweyn’s back as she ran in front of them. "But she did do what I asked of her. I think that's something.”

Taiga’s mouth thinned into a line. “Let's hope so."