The world outside blurred as the car sped down the winding road, but my mind was sharper than ever. Every fragment of memory was crawling back—like shards of broken glass finding their place.
Kai sat beside me, silent, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel. His silence wasn't peaceful—it was the kind that screamed with all the words he couldn't say.
"Say it," I whispered, unable to stand it anymore. "Say you knew."
His jaw tightened. For a moment, I thought he'd keep quiet, but then his voice cracked through the stillness.
"I knew," he said. "I knew what Ravian did. What they all did."
The car slowed, pulling into the shadow of an abandoned chapel on the hilltop. The same chapel I had once been forced into—veiled, trembling, burned alive in vows that were never meant to save me.
I stepped out before Kai could open the door, my heels crunching against the gravel. My eyes locked on the ruined building, smoke-stained walls still etched with ghostly black scars of fire.
This was where I had died.
"Why bring me here?" I demanded, turning to him.
Kai's eyes were tormented, but steady. "Because you need to remember everything. Because until you do, you'll never know who the real enemy is."
My fists clenched. "The real enemy is you."
The accusation hung heavy between us. He didn't deny it.
Instead, he walked past me, pushing open the rusted chapel doors. The scent of ash lingered, even after all these years. Inside, the pews were splintered, candles melted into grotesque shapes, and on the altar—my old wedding veil, charred and half-buried beneath dust.
I froze. My throat tightened, vision spinning.
"I wore that when…"
"When they burned you alive," Kai finished, his voice low. He didn't move closer. Didn't dare. "I should have stopped it. I didn't."
Rage surged through me, hotter than the flames I once endured. "And you think I'll forgive you because you admit it?"
He finally looked at me then—raw, broken, desperate.
"No. I don't want forgiveness, Nyra. I want you to understand why I betrayed you."
But before I could answer, footsteps echoed from the back of the chapel.
Celeste emerged from the shadows, her silver hair catching the pale moonlight seeping through the shattered windows. Her lips curved into a smile that was part sorrow, part satisfaction.
"You finally brought her here," she said to Kai.
I stared between them, the pieces shifting in my mind. "You… both knew?"
Celeste's eyes found mine, piercing, unwavering. "Nyra, you were never meant to be their bride. You were meant to be their weapon."
The veil at my feet fluttered with the draft, as if mocking me. The ashes of my past were no longer silent—they were screaming, demanding vengeance.
And for the first time, I realized I wasn't afraid of the fire anymore.
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🔥 End of Chapter 48 🔥