Moonlight poured through the window like spilled silver, washing over Aelira's bed where she sat upright, her breath ragged, her hands trembling.
The dream—no, the vision—still clung to her skin like smoke.
She had seen herself at the center of a circle of flame. Witches surrounded her, their faces twisted in fury, shadows of betrayal etched into their eyes. A chant thundered in her ears, foreign yet familiar. And there, stepping forward from the firelight, was Kaeln.
His arm lifted, a cruel spell sparking at his fingertips. His voice echoed—raw, fractured:
"Forgive me… I didn't know."
Aelira blinked. Her chest rose and fell in frantic bursts as she pressed her trembling fingers into the mattress. The night felt too still. The air, too thin.
Her body was beginning to remember what her mind could not.
---
Outside, the forest stirred like a sleeping beast.
Drawn by a pull she didn't understand—a thread tugging at the seams of her soul—Aelira rose. She wrapped a dark cloak around her shoulders, feet bare against the wooden floor, and slipped out of the cottage like a shadow. The earth was cool, soft with moss and pine needles. The scent of damp earth and old magic tingled in her nose.
The whispers came again.
Faint. Coaxing. Timeless.
Her feet moved without command, as though they knew where she needed to go—perhaps where she had gone a hundred times before, in another life.
The grove opened like a memory in bloom.
There, in the center of the moonlight-drenched clearing, stood Kaeln.
His figure cut sharply against the trees, the lines of his frame cloaked in shadow. He turned as if he'd known she would come.
"You felt it too," he said, voice low, guarded.
She halted, her breath catching. The mark of familiarity in this place… in him… it unsettled her.
"I keep seeing things," she said softly. "Circles. Fire. Chanting. I think… I saw you in them."
His eyes darkened. His jaw clenched.
"Was it real?" she asked. "Or am I losing my mind?"
Kaeln took a step closer, but his voice cracked with restraint.
"I would never let that happen to you."
Aelira's eyes narrowed. "That's not what I asked."
He looked away. The moon caught the faint gleam of sweat on his brow.
"Some truths aren't safe to speak aloud," he said.
Her voice trembled, but her words did not.
"That's not your decision to make."
Silence thickened between them. Magic seemed to hover in the air, prickling her skin like static. Then the wind shifted.
The scent of rosemary and ash surged—sharp, bitter, familiar.
Pain lanced through her ribs like a blade. Aelira gasped, falling to her knees. Kaeln lunged forward, arms outstretched—but he never caught her.
She was gone.
The Veil
The world tilted.
Flames crackled in the distance, and the trees turned to bones, their leaves blackened, whispering her name:
"Saelwyn…"
She stood alone in a forest that wasn't a forest—a memory forged in fire. At its center, a stone altar smoldered, scorched by past ritual. And on it, she saw herself, bound by enchanted chains. Her voice, steady and fierce, rang through the burning woods.
"I was not yours to burn."
She came back gasping.
Kaeln was cradling her on the ground, his arms around her, panic in his voice. "You passed out—what happened? Are you hurt?"
Aelira sat up slowly, her fingers trembling as they brushed her shoulder—and stopped.
There, beneath the fabric of her sleeve, a sigil pulsed faintly.
Circular. Ancient. Etched in silver lines that shimmered and flickered with threads of moonlight and fire.
It had always been there. Beneath the skin. Waiting.
Kaeln's eyes locked on it. And for a moment, something like fear crossed his face.
"That mark…" he whispered. "It belonged to Saelwyn."
Aelira's blood ran cold.
"You know that name."
He didn't deny it.
"I know everything," he said at last. "I've known since the moment I saw you again."
---
She stood quickly, her cloak falling away.
The mark glowed faintly on her skin, like something reborn.
"You've lied to me," she said, voice trembling. "You let me believe I was going mad while you—watched."
"I was trying to protect you," he said, stepping forward.
"No." Her voice was sharper now, raw. "You were protecting yourself."
Kaeln flinched.
Before he could say another word, she turned and fled.
Through the trees. Into the darkness. Into the past that no longer slept.
Behind her, Kaeln stood alone beneath the moonlight.
And into the wind, he whispered the name he hadn't spoken aloud in a lifetime—
"Saelwyn."