This was trouble Knox hadn't expected. He'd never imagined that his dead partner would call forth the first woman he'd killed. She was berating him for his betrayal, for never having loved her, for not keeping his promises. He had loved her, in a way. His upbringing hadn't made love easy for him, even as a young man. What was it that had led him to killing her and discovering the power that came from it? His mother had found out about Sylvanie and told him to break it off with the girl. There was no way a son of hers would marry some poor child of the slums. He'd gone to the Inn where she worked to break it off.
"I knew all along we'd come to this," she said. "I saw you break my heart, but I couldn't stay away. Why do I have this gift? It has never caused me anything but pain."
That was when he imagined her future; alone in the world, sometimes seeing visions that nobody believed. He thought of her committing suicide someday or being burned as a witch. He decided to save her by sparing her all of that trouble and pain. He drew his dagger, keeping it hidden.
"I do love you, Sylvanie, and I always will," he said and then plunged the dagger into her heart.
As her blood spurted on to his hands and arms, inspiration hit him. He'd seen his parents' blood sacrifices many times. They hadn't yet begun his formal training, but he had a good memory. The words of a spell came to his mind. He reached into her chest, pulled out her heart, and ate it. Power surged through him and with it came a vision. He realized that it was an image of this moment in time. Nick standing there berating him in French, hosting the spirit of his lost love. He'd lied to her back then. He had lost the capability to feel love long ago. He pulled his dagger, but this time cut into his own flesh.
"You have no power over me, little girl. My power had grown over the centuries, you are just a shade of my past," he said.
She laughed. "Oh, you think you know everything, Master Dubois, but you don't realize that you took more than just my life force. Now that Nick has brought me here to you, I'm not going to leave. No Necromancer can banish me from your life. You said you would love me forever, now you shall have to keep that promise. But no, you never loved me. Let us say instead that I shall haunt you forever."
The light went out of Nick's eyes and Knox knew that Sylvanie had left him. He couldn't see her, but he felt cold air in front of him and then her spirit entered him and for the first time in forever, he felt afraid.