KAEL'S POV
Her scream tore through me.
I wasn't in the abyss, not fully, but I felt it—the burn of her chains, the chill of that endless dark. My fire had no right to exist there, yet it clawed through anyway, drawn to her like iron to a forge.
When I reached her, she was on her knees. Chains cracked around her, shadows writhing, and across from her—
Gods.
It was her.
Ayla, but twisted. The same body, the same scars, but with eyes hollow as pits and a smile like sharpened glass. I almost faltered. Almost.
But Ayla's fire flared at the sight of me, and I knew: she was still hers. Still mine.
I roared, flame tearing from me, splitting the abyss floor wide. Shadows screeched and scattered, that false Ayla staggering, unraveling in the blaze. But she didn't fall. She laughed. And when she finally dissolved into the dark, the sound of it lingered, too sharp to be silent.
