Salem Falls

After the battle had died down, Evelyn had gone back to Louis only to find a faint heartbeat pulsing through his veins.

So her mother had helped her collect him and take him to their home in an attempt to heal him. She wished it could be as easy as it had been with Niall – and even that hadn’t been easy – that with just a few spells, she would have some stirring of Louis back in his seemingly lifeless body. But unfortunately, the type of magic Naveed specialized in was much, much more powerful. Louis would be out for a long time, if not forever. And if he did come around, it was highly possible it wouldn’t be the same.

“His heartbeat is getting stronger,” Ella observed softly, pressing her fingers to Louis’s neck and timing the beats carefully. “Would you put some more of the of the turmeric on his joints? And the cinnamon and ginger extract – try to drip it right to the back of his throat so he’ll swallow it.”

Evelyn followed her mother’s orders, parting Louis’s lips, the lips she knew so well, and dripping the amber liquid into his mouth, sighed. She wished that she had never gotten him involved in all of this, that they had never met in the first place. He would have been better off without her.

But as soon as that thought finished, a new one replaced it brusquely – of course she didn’t mean that; Louis changed her life for the better. Louis had become her life. She loved the human boy who tried so hard to be tough, but on the inside cared so deeply that he had come to find her in the clearing. It was stupid, but it was also Louis. She couldn’t be mad, she could only try to save him. For some reason, he hadn’t died, and now she had the chance.

“Mom,” she began, massaging the turmeric onto Louis’s joints to help extract the dark magic from his bones. “Why is he still here? Why didn’t he die from Naveed’s curse?”

Ella smiled her knowing smile, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she murmured another spell to heal Louis even further. “There’s a type of magic much stronger than any magic we know how to control, Ev. I think you found that magic in the clearing.”

Evelyn looked at her mother with a quizzical gaze, pursing her lips. “What magic?”

“Love,” Ella replied simply. “Love, of course. When you kissed Louis, it preserved the last little shred of life he had within him, enough to preserve him and keep him protected until we were able to heal him.”

Evelyn nodded just slightly, looking at Louis instead. Her kiss had saved him. Her love had saved him. It all made sense – at least, if she didn’t think about it too hard. Nothing in their world made sense if she thought about it too hard.

“I know it’s a lot to grasp, but as you grow stronger in your magic, you’ll learn more about these sorts of things,” Ella continued. “Love is a magic we simply have within us, not one that is cast in a spell or a curse. Evil is another. Naveed Malik had no control over the evil within him and eventually it destroyed him.”

Evelyn could only nod.

“I’m proud of you, Evelyn. You did everything right. Now, we just have to wait.”

Her mother stood and pressed a kiss to the top of her daughter’s head before turning to leave Evelyn and Louis to themselves. His chest rose and fell just slightly, shallowly, because he did not have the strength left in him to breathe deeper. Or so Evelyn thought.

Suddenly, Louis stirred, his eyes fluttering open in what felt like slow motion to Evelyn. She gasped, her hands immediately flying to his cheeks, not taking her eyes off his. Louis coughed, sputtering a bit from the extract surely sitting at the top of his pipes, swallowing it with a grimace.

“Ev,” he croaked, bringing tears to her eyes. He remembered her. “What happened?”

“You were attacked,” she sighed through the happy weeping. “You tried to come to protect me but you were attacked. It doesn’t matter now, Lou, you’re okay. You’re with me.”

Louis exhaled deeply, letting his eyes fall closed again. “I love you.”

Evelyn laughed, her heart not able to pick an emotion or a reaction to match it. “I love you too, Louis.”

And he would go on to heal, to make a full recovery, to become Evelyn’s boyfriend again. And they would be happy together in a Salem Falls free of the dark magic that had once haunted them. Evelyn, with her new found magic and her love, the human boy.