Her beautiful face paled as she saw them by her hearth.

“Ias?” She blinked. “They told me this morning that you were dead.”

Ias shook his head, his eyes bright. “Nay, my love. I am here. I’ve come home to you.”

Acheron took a deep breath as Ias rushed to her and hugged her close. It went a long way in ebbing the pain of his back.

“There’s still a couple of things, Ias,” Acheron said quietly.

Ias pulled back with a frown.

“Your wife will have to release your soul back into your body.”

Liora scowled. “What?”

“I swore myself to serve Artemis,” Ias explained, “but she’s going to let me go so that I can come back to you.”

She looked baffled by his words.

“What must we do?” Ias asked.

“You’ll have to die again.”

He paled a bit. “Are you sure?”

Acheron nodded, then handed his dagger to Liora. “You’ll have to stab him through the heart.”

She looked horrified and appalled by his suggestion. “What?”

“It’s the only way.”

“It’s murder. I’ll be hanged.”

“No, I swear it.”

“Do it, Liora,” Ias urged. “I want to be with you again.”

Her face skeptical, she took the dagger in her hand and tried to press it into his chest.

It didn’t work.

All the blade did was prick the skin.

Acheron grimaced as he remembered what Artemis had said about Dark-Hunter powers. An average human wouldn’t be able to hurt a Dark-Hunter with a dagger.

But he could.

Taking the dagger from Liora, he drove it straight through Ias’s heart.

Ias stumbled back, panting.

“Don’t panic,” Acheron said, laying him down on the floor before his hearth. “I’ve got you.”

Acheron reached up and pulled Liora down by his side. He took the stone medallion that contained Ias’s soul from his satchel. “You have to take this into your hand when he dies and release his soul back into his body.”