The forest had fallen still, as if the entire world was holding its breath.
Aria stood just beyond the stone circle, the shattered remnants of the Mirror Gate behind her, the echo of her shadow self's scream fading into silence. Her body trembled—not from fear, but from the unraveling tension that had been coiled so tightly inside her for days. Maybe weeks. She couldn't tell anymore. Everything had blurred since the night the crown first touched her head.
The weight of it still lingered—a phantom pressure, even when she wasn't wearing it.
Caleb stepped from the tree line, his eyes catching the moonlight, golden and steady. His shirt was half-torn, dirt smeared across his jaw, but he walked to her with the calm of a man who knew her chaos and still chose her.
"I thought I lost you," he said softly.
"You almost did," she whispered. "But not in the way you think."
