The night pressed closer, a weight she couldn't shrug off.
Aira's breath came shallow, every inhale thick with damp earth and ash. The clearing spun, shadows stretching too far, leaning at angles that defied the roots that birthed them.
She shut her eyes. It isn't real. It isn't real.
But when her lashes fluttered open again, the forest had chaned.
The clearing was gone. In its place her village square. The well post stood blackened, ropes still smoking. The faces of her neighbors ringed her, silent and ashstreaked, eyes burning with judgment.
"No," she whispered, shaking her head. "Not again…"
They didn't move. Didn't blink. Their stares pinned her harder than any rope.
Then one of the faces shifted, familiar, younger.
Kieran.
Her throat seized. He stepped forward, but his shape was wrong longer, thinner, his smile sharp enough to cut. Shadows curled from his shoulders, but his eyes his eyes were still the boy she remembered.
"Little sister," he said, voice warm and cruel all at once. "Why do you fight what you are?"
Her knees gave way. She sank into the dirt, clutching her arms. "You left me," she rasped. "You chose the darkness."
His laugh rippled, spreading through the phantom crowd until the whole village echoed it. "I didn't choose. Neither did you. Blood chose for us."
The crowd swayed. Ash fell like snow. Aira gagged, choking on the smoke that wasn't there.
Kieran knelt, shadows folding around him like wings. He reached for her cheek, but when his fingers brushed her skin, they were colder than stone.
"You burn, I devour," he murmured. "Two halves, one curse. Stop running, Aira. Let the forest finish what it started. You don't have to carry it alone."
She jerked back, light sparking from her wrists. The crowd recoiled in one sharp motion, ash scattering like startled birds.
"Leave me!" she screamed, but her voice cracked into a sob.
Kieran's smile only widened. His form shimmered, thinning into smoke, until only his eyes remained two gleaming coals hovering in the dark.
You will come to me.
The words seared her skull. Then the vision collapsed.
The square was gone, The forest snapped back into place. Aira lay curled in the dirt, chest heaving, hands glowing faintly as though they'd been burning ropes again.
Her tears streaked mud down her face. The silence returned, heavier than before.
But the echo of Kieran's voice lingered in her ears, soft and unshakable.
You will come to me.
And in the hollow of her chest, she feared it wasn't a threat.
It was a promise.