"Come on, love," John urged. The air was thick with dark magic as an eerie purple light enveloped the lifeless body of the one his hubris had once doomed.

As a young warlock, John had been arrogant, foolish, and brash. Once a con man dabbling in the magical arts, he'd been taken under the wing of a powerful wizard named Zatara as his pupil. John had eagerly accepted the chance to learn more about magic—and, no less importantly, to be close to Zatara's other pupil at the time, whom he'd fallen for at first sight. Though he'd never acted on those feelings, they had always remained close to his heart.

Once they'd graduated into magic users in their own right, the pair had become famous, traveling across the kingdom and offering their services to those who needed them. His work partner, far more cautious than John had ever been, had warned him of the dangers of arrogance. He hadn't listened. He'd tampered with dark powers beyond him, and his partner, his heart, had paid the price.

Fallen from grace and having lost that which he'd held most dear, John had spent years obsessing over necromancy, desperate to find a way to undo his mistake. A decade later he'd mastered the dark arts, perfected the resurrection spell over many failed iterations.

Finally, his efforts paid off. A sharp inhale cut through the silence. The spell had worked. His partner's once-lifeless body surged to life, eyes snapping open and spine arching.

"Bloody hell," John muttered in absolute awe. An agonizing groan quickly snapped him out of it, however, and he wasted no time in pulling his beloved into his arms, the air around them swirling with magic as he began to cast healing spells to help the revival process along and soothe the pain. "Shhh. I'm here, love. You're back. You're really back."