I woke to sunlight pouring through the windows, soft and golden, warming the sheets tangled around my legs. For a moment, I didn't move.
The air was still.
The quiet wasn't ominous—it was peace.
Kai's arm was draped around my waist, his chest pressed to my back, his breath slow and steady against the curve of my neck. His presence cocooned me—strong and real, his skin warm where it touched mine.
Safe. Whole. Ours.
I smiled faintly and let my eyes flutter closed again. No visions. No pain. Just him.
"You're awake," Kai murmured, his voice low and gravelly from sleep.
"You were watching me again," I whispered.
He pulled me tighter. "Of course I was."
I shifted to face him, and his eyes—warm and barely open—drifted across my face like he was still memorizing every piece of me.
"You're staring," I said with a soft smile.
"You nearly died," he replied, brushing a hand down my side. "I'm allowed."
I leaned up and kissed him—gentle, lingering, full of morning stillness and everything we'd survived. When we parted, I rested my forehead against his.
"We should probably get up," I whispered.
Kai sighed, the sound deep in his chest. "Nick's going to be annoying about this."
I snorted. "Let him be."
Just then, a familiar voice called from outside the door—too smug for its own good.
"You two realize I've been standing here for five minutes debating whether to knock or just burn this door down?"
Kai let out a groan and buried his face in the pillow. "I locked the door, Nick."
"Oh, I know you did. Didn't stop me from hearing half the night's greatest hits, though. Sounded like someone was making sure the curse was thoroughly undone—multiple times."
I gasped and hid my face in Kai's shoulder as my entire body flushed with heat.
"Nick!"
"You're welcome for not kicking it in. I'm being respectful. Mostly."
Kai muttered, "I knew I should've added a silence ward."
I raised an eyebrow, smirking against his bare shoulder."Nah… you just thought of that right now, didn't you?"
He groaned again, dragging the blanket over both our heads."Not helping."
Outside the door, Nick chuckled, clearly enjoying himself way too much."Seriously though, when you two are done being all star-crossed and tangled up, we've got a world to debrief. And breakfast. Don't make me come back."
Kai sighed into the pillow. "Gods, why didn't the curse take him?"
I giggled softly, kissed his cheek, and whispered, "Because the universe knows I'd bring him back too."
Kai grumbled, but I could feel the smile tugging at his lips as he kissed the top of my head.
Kai eventually opened the door—fully dressed but still disheveled, hair damp from a quick rinse, his expression one of resigned amusement and exhausted contentment.
Nick was sitting at the small round table by the window, feet propped up, munching on a slice of fruit like he hadn't just spent the last two days pacing the halls.
As soon as I stepped into the room, still wrapped in one of Kai's dark linen robes, Nick looked up. His teasing grin faded into something softer.
"Hey, sis."
My throat tightened. I crossed the space without hesitation and pulled him into a hug. He stood without question and wrapped his arms around me, tightly.
"You scared the hell out of me," he murmured.
I closed my eyes. "I scared myself too."
We stood there a moment—not warrior and twin, not savior and survivor—but just Anna and Nick. Two people who'd lived through something ancient and cruel and came out the other side.
When we pulled apart, Kai set a tray on the table—tea, bread, fruit, and a dish that smelled suspiciously like something I hadn't eaten since my own timeline.
I raised an eyebrow. "Did you cook?"
"I… reheated," Kai muttered, sitting down with the elegance of someone who wanted to pretend he didn't just fight a shadow warden and then sleep like the dead for two days. "The spellfire stove and I are still negotiating boundaries."
Nick smirked. "She almost died, and that's what you bring to the table? Burnt bread?"
Kai narrowed his eyes. "Did you cook?"
Nick held up his hands. "Touché."
We all sat—for the first time since it all began—with nothing hanging over us. No blades in the dark. No curses. No secrets left between us.
Just quiet.
After a while, Nick leaned forward. "So… now what?"
I looked between the two of them.
The man I loved, who had followed me through time and shadow.
And my brother, who had always been the key I didn't know I needed.
I set my tea down, voice steady. "Now, I decide who I want to be. Not Anaria. Not the cursed descendant. Just me."
Kai reached for my hand. "And wherever that path leads…"
Nick added, "…we've got your back."
I smiled—and for the first time in what felt like lifetimes—
I truly believed them.
Just as I started to relax—tea in hand, Kai's fingers laced gently through mine, and Nick rambling about the world's worst healing broth—I felt it.
A sharp tug.
Not physical, but deep—like something pulling at the very center of me.
My vision blurred.
The light in the room flickered.
The sound faded—Kai's voice, Nick's laughter—all replaced by silence.
No. Not silence.
Wind. Echoing. Cold.
I froze.
Kai noticed first. "Anna?"
But I couldn't answer.
My eyes were open, but the world in front of me had shifted.
The soft light of Kai's room dimmed into a landscape of mist and shadow, where figures stood frozen like statues, all blurred at the edges. Familiar, yet unreachable.
And then—a voice.
Male.
Clear.
And ancient.
"You've broken one chain, Anna… but not all of them."
I turned my head slowly, trying to locate the source. Nothing. Just mist.
"The blade is awake… but so is he. And he remembers you."
My breath caught. My heart thudded painfully in my chest.
"Who are you?" I whispered.
"You will know me soon enough."
A flicker of golden eyes in the dark—then gone.
And the vision shattered.
I gasped, lurching back in my seat.
The cup fell from my hand and shattered against the floor.
Kai was at my side instantly. "Anna—what happened?"
Nick was already crouching beside me, eyes wide. "Did you… see something?"
I stared ahead, still breathing hard. My skin was ice. My hands shook.
"It wasn't over," I whispered.
They both stilled.
I looked at them, heart pounding.
"Someone else is coming."
Nick and Kai exchanged looks, both on edge now. I could feel the shift in the air—the calm we'd fought for was cracking again.
I pressed a hand to my chest. My heart was still racing, but not out of fear. Recognition lingered on the edge of my thoughts—like the voice was something familiar, just out of reach.
"He remembers you."
Those words looped again and again in my head.
Kai knelt in front of me, gently gripping my knees. "Anna. Start from the beginning. What did you see?"
I told them—everything. The mist. The figures. The voice that spoke from the dark, low and ancient. The golden eyes.
Nick frowned. "Golden eyes. That's not Janie. Not any of the old wardens either, right?"
Kai's jaw tensed. "No. But I've read of someone like that…"
He stood, crossed the room, and opened a drawer in the small bookshelf tucked near the hearth. He pulled out a weathered leather journal—his grandfather's, if I remembered right—and flipped through it with rapid fingers until he landed on a page near the center.
He held it up for me to see.
A sketch—rough, but unmistakable. A tall figure cloaked in swirling robes, eyes like fire. The script beneath it read:
"The First Flame. The one who forged the blade… and was buried beneath it."
"Kaelion," Kai said quietly. "A forgotten name. Buried deep in ancestral records. He was said to be the first wielder of the blade… before Anaria. Before Janie."
Nick stared. "I thought that was just a myth."
Kai met my eyes. "If he's waking up… then this goes deeper than Janie's curse."
I touched the pendant Merrin had given me. It pulsed faintly—a response. A warning.
And somewhere deep inside me, something stirred. A memory. A dream. Not mine.
A flash of stone. Of flame. Of a man with golden eyes whispering across lifetimes:
"You were mine before they stole you from me."
My breath hitched.
This wasn't just a warning.
It was a summons.
I stood from the table, unsteady but driven by instinct. My hands trembled as I reached for the pendant at my chest. The moment my fingers closed around it, the world tilted.
I didn't fall. I was pulled.
The light of the room faded into gold and fire, swirling into a vision so real I could feel heat rising around me—not like before. Not shadow. This was flame. Living flame.
I stood in a vast chamber of obsidian and molten crystal, walls etched with ancient script glowing orange and red. The air pulsed like it breathed. Power thrummed beneath my feet.
And then—
He appeared.
Tall. Cloaked in smoke and light, his features only partially visible beneath a golden circlet. His eyes burned like twin suns—watching me not with cruelty, but familiarity.
"You've returned to me."
I froze. My mouth parted, but no words came.
"Not in body. Not fully. But in soul… Anna, you've never truly left."
His voice—deep, velvet-smooth, carrying a weight like thunder—rippled through my bones.
He stepped forward. I didn't move. Couldn't.
"They called me Kaelion. The First Flame. The one who forged the blade with a piece of his own soul. I gave it form. I bound it to protect—not to curse. But it was stolen. Twisted."
He lifted a hand, and a flicker of light rose between us—a memory.
I gasped.
It was me. Or—someone who wore my face.
Draped in white and gold, standing beside him at the heart of the flame. My hair longer. My eyes… different. Older.
"We were bonded," he said softly. "More than lovers. You were my balance. My anchor. You tempered my fire. And when they betrayed me—when they feared what we were becoming—they severed you from me. Erased your memory. Sent you into the cycle."
The memory showed the blade being torn from his hands. A woman standing at the edge—Janie.
I flinched.
"She was the first to steal your soul's light. And others followed. Time after time. Each new life, farther from me. Until now."
He stepped close. I could feel the heat of him—not burning, but enveloping. Consuming in a way that promised creation, not destruction.
"You are waking, Anna. And so am I."
I shook my head. "But I belong with Kai—"
His expression didn't shift. No anger. Just a devastating calm.
"I do not ask you to belong to me. I ask you to remember."
"Remember who you were… before you were broken."
The fire roared behind him, and everything exploded into light—
Reality – Back in the Sanctuary
I collapsed forward—Kai catching me just in time.
"Anna!" he held me steady, his voice urgent.
Nick was at my other side. "What the hell just happened?"
I clutched Kai's tunic tightly, eyes wide, breath shuddering. "I… saw him. Kaelion. I was with him—before. Before everything."
Kai stiffened.
I looked at him, guilt and confusion washing through me. "He said I was his anchor. That we were bonded before time tore us apart. Before Janie cursed us."
Nick ran a hand through his hair, pacing. "So let me get this straight—you were bonded to the First Flame. Who forged the blade. Who's now waking up?"
I nodded slowly.
Kai's eyes darkened, not with jealousy—but with fear. "And what does he want now?"
I looked toward the window.
The fire hadn't died.
It had just started burning again.
The next few days passed in fragments.
The wound in my side healed quickly thanks to Kai's enchantments and the pendant's glow. Nick stayed close, always half-watching me like I might fall into another vision at any moment.
But what scared me most… was the way I felt when I closed my eyes.
Kaelion was always there.
Not with words. Not with fire or threats.
But in sensation.
The warmth that wrapped around me as I slept. The flicker of golden light in my dreams. The echo of his touch—one I didn't remember living, but my soul remembered it all.
And it was becoming harder to ignore.
One Night – Alone in the Sanctuary Garden
I stood beneath the stars, bare feet in the grass, the pendant glowing faintly at my chest. The night was quiet, and the moon lit the garden in silver.
Kai found me there.
He didn't speak at first. Just stood behind me, letting the silence settle.
Then softly, "You've been distant."
I didn't deny it.
"I'm trying to understand something I didn't ask for," I said quietly. "Kaelion… that bond... it runs deeper than memory. It feels like it was written into my blood. And that terrifies me."
Kai stepped closer, his voice low. "Do you still love me?"
I turned to him slowly, met his eyes. "More than anything."
"But you feel him. Even now."
I nodded, ashamed. "It's not like I want to. I wake up and the warmth I feel isn't always yours. I see things that aren't mine. I feel things that aren't mine. And I'm scared that if I don't figure out who I was… I'll never be whole."
Kai looked away, jaw tense. But his next words surprised me.
"Then figure it out."
I blinked.
He stepped forward, placing his hands on my shoulders. "Whatever this is—Kaelion, the bond, the truth of who you were—I won't hold you back from it."
"But Kai—"
"I love you, Anna." His voice cracked. "Not because you're mine. Not because of some faded prophecy. But because you choose to be here. With me."
He leaned his forehead to mine.
"Just promise me… that when you remember who you were… you'll also remember who you've become."
I nodded, eyes stinging.
"I will."
And in that moment, I knew the fire that waited in my past wasn't going to fade. Kaelion was waking. And he wanted me to remember everything.
But so did Kai.
And only one of them lived in this world.