Elaine’s subordinates brought Hex’s body back to Macabre Hearse. She prepared for the ritual, using an empty room as the place she would bring him back. She took the cheat sheet that Zlyena’s friend made for the Forbidden Book, and looked at it. She had the book on her desk. It was a dangerous book, it was the same book that had the spell that turned her sister into a demon inside it.

She knew that the only way to bring him back was through the Forbidden Book, Drake had only come back to life because he was half-demon, Hex had no demon blood inside him, he may have had magical powers, but that didn’t change that he would stay dead unless she used the book.

She found the page she needed, and slowly counted the pages of the book, not looking at what was inside. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, she knew how painful it would be, but she couldn’t live without him. She reached the page she needed to read, and opened the book with closed eyes. Her door was locked, she made sure of it, so no one else could read it.

She opened her eyes, and the forbidden texts assaulted her eyes in a flash of light. Deciphering the words was extremely painful to her, she felt a piece of her soul leave her. Her entire body felt like it was on fire, and her head felt like it was about to split in half. Finally, she knew how to do it. It didn’t hurt anymore to read, and the pain faded. The text was burned into her mind, she closed the book, and could remember every word.

She went to the empty room, where Hex’s body was, though it was in a corner. She moved his body to the center, and cut herself, so she could draw the sigil she needed with blood. She used her own blood to draw a large sigil, and lightly stepped over the markings she made on the floor.

She said the incantation, the forbidden words leaving her lips. The body stirred. It’s eyes opened, and gasped. She had prepared for the bleeding to start up again, so she put gauze over his wounds.

“I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry… I love you… I love you...” she cried as she cradled him.

She couldn’t bear not confessing her feelings to him any longer, she could no longer hold it in. She knew what she had to do, she had to prevent it from ever happening in the first place. She stood up and used a spell to open a portal back to the recent past, and used a spell on him that would grant him telepathy.

“If you try hard enough, you can use telepathy now, please say something.” She went back to him and cradled him in her arms.

“It hurts, it hurts so much, make it stop,” the revived Hex spoke with his newfound telepathy. His voice was different, it was lower and more velveteen than before.

“Can you get up? We’re going through the portal.” She sat him up, blood already collecting in the gauze on his chest.

“I don’t think I can, my chest and face are on fire,” he said, tears forming under his eyes.

“I’ll have to drag you then, is that okay? We have to go, we have to prevent this from ever happening,” she said.

“What will happen to me though?” He looked up at her, his now dark purple, almost black eyes looked so sorrowful.

“I’m not sure, but I will get you the help you need,” she said, and started to drag the resurrected Hex, putting her arms under his.

“Can we go to Dr. Gage’s hospital please? I don’t know if I can take much more of this,” he said.

“We’re going there first,” she said, dragging him through the portal.

They arrived on the other side, and the Elaine from the past gasped, they were in her room but on the previous day.

“Oh my god, Hex?! What happened?!” the past Elaine cried.

“Merge with me, you know how. We need to prevent a paradox any way we can,” the future Elaine said.

The future Elaine and past Elaine stepped in front of each other, and the future one walked into the past one, entering her body. She screamed as the two became one, and there was a rush of red energy.

“Oh my god, what did we… I… Do?” She knew the merging spell brought on temporary confusion, all she had to do was get the future Hex to Dr. Gage.

She opened up another portal, and dragged the future Hex through it, his gauze overflowing with blood and leaking onto the floor in strands of red. She heard him gagging and choking on the blood coming from where his tongue used to be, and knew she had to get there fast. She came through the other side, which was the waiting room for the hospital. Dr. Gage was there, looking at a document. As soon as he looked up, he covered his mouth.

“Oh… My goodness! We need to get him to the OR right now, call the nurses, we have a code red..” Dr. Gage turned to the worker at the front desk,

A bunch of nurses poured in, and she let them take the future Hex away on a gurney, leaving her alone with Dr. Gage.

“What happened to him?” Dr. Gage asked.

“The Hex you know is fine, this one is from the future, I just came from there, I… I had to use the book to bring him back, you know the one,” she said.

“Then all the wounds on his body will be unable to be healed. Any spell from that book makes wounds permanent, you remember, yes? Your mother has the same issue. The crystal her core was given when she was young was made by one of the spells in that book.” He pushed up his glasses.

“Where did you hear that?” she asked.

“From your sister’s father, who was my mentor when I came to this place. Darwin Jacobs is his name, and he still works in the field of magical medicine, but he’s very busy putting on seminars of the subject at the moment.” He smiled.

“My sister’s dad? You knew him? Why didn’t you tell me?” she questioned further.

“You never asked,” he said.

“So what will happen to him if I show Hex his future self?” she asked.

“You’ll have to wait for them to get the special stitches done, but after that, I’ll let you have him. We’ll have to also seal up the wounds on his face and in his throat with a special adhesive,” he said.

“How long will that take?” she asked.

“Around an hour at most. Please wait here.” He walked away, leaving her alone.