CHAPTER 15

Kael’s POV

I want to see my child. And I hadn’t meant to walk that kind of far.

The morning was damp, the sky clear, like it hadn’t made up its mind about raining. My boots are not making any sound in the mossy surroundings. And there was something in the air—something that made the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I felt drawn, like a string tugged at my chest, leading me deeper into the woods behind the castle. I followed without thinking.

Then I saw it.

A pale blue shawl hung off a branch like a ghost’s hand. Torn, dirty, but unmistakable. I froze. My heart stuttered in my chest.

“Aria,” I whispered gently and took a glance at her.

I didn’t even realize I’d dropped to my knees slowly as my fingers trembled. I reached for it. 

The moment I touched the fabric, her scent rose like wild roses and something soft like sunlight in spring. My chest tightened. I couldn’t breathe any longer.

The guilt hit me like a punch to the stomach.

Then I pressed the shawl to my face, and I saw her. Not a memory, but a flash. Her eyes were wide. Her voice breaking. And then the silence that came after was too long, too loud.

I walked away, and I let them take her.

That night, I woke up screaming in my throat. My body was soaked in sweat. My hands clenched the sheets like I was drowning. Pain filled through my chest, sharp and hot. Like something inside me was clawing its way out.

I fell to the floor.

“Damn it,” I groaned, pressing my palm over my heart.

Visions—flashes—rushed through my mind. Aria, reaching out. Aria crying. My name on her lips was broken and unheard.

The bond.

I’d tried to sever it months ago. Lilith helped. Said it was the only way to move on. Said it would stop the dreams, and stop the pain. I believed her completely. I was a fool.

Now it was coming back. Alive. Furious.

By the time I moved into the solar, Lilith was already waiting as she was already staring in my direction. She sat curled and calmly like a cat on the velvet chaise. She held a glass of blood wine in one of her hands shakingly, and her long dark hair covered her shoulder like ink.

“You’re pale, my love,” she said with a smile. “Rough night?”

“I found her shawl.”

Her smile didn’t fade, but her eyes narrowed the tiniest bit.

“That old thing? I thought we burned it.”

“No,” I said. “You told me she ran. Then you told me she died. Which one was it?”

Lilith’s voice softened. “You’re confused again, Kael. That bond… it’s making you sick. You don’t need her. You have me.”

“I remember what you said. You swore to me she was dead.”

“She is.”

“But I feel her.”

Lilith stood and came to me. Her fingers slid over my shoulders, her lips brushing against my jaw.

“Let me help you forget,” she whispered.

Magic rolled off her in waves—thick, heavy, like warm honey wrapping around my limbs. I tried to fight it, but my mind blurred. My thoughts slowed. She looked at me and kissed me with a soft smile, and for a moment, I drowned again.

The nights blurred together after that.

I woke up gasping, over and over again, drenched in sweat and aching. The bond pulled tighter. I felt her, Aria in my chest. Not just memories. Real, alive. And hurting.

One evening, I couldn’t sleep. Something felt off. Lilith wasn’t in bed.

I got up and followed a strange sound—low, rasping whispers. They weren’t human.

I crept through the stone corridors, toward the old garden. The vines had long since choked the statues. No one came here anymore. But this evening, I saw the glow of red light pulsing beneath the twisted branches.

I walked slowly and stayed in the shadows quietly. Then Lilith stood barefoot in the center of a glowing sigil etched in blood and ash. Her head was thrown back, her voice no longer her own.

“Nas’har vek talmor... ith drae!”

The language made my skin crawl. My stomach turned.

And then something *answered*.

From the darkness behind the garden wall, a shape emerged. I couldn’t see it clearly—only that it was tall, wrong, its edges rippling like smoke caught in water. The temperature dropped. My breath clouded in the air.

Then the voice came—not sound, but pressure. Like someone pushing thoughts into my skull.

“He sees.”

Lilith turned sharply.

“Who’s there?!”

But I was already left, running back to the halls, my heart pounding so hard, I thought it would shatter in my chest.

I didn’t sleep again after that.

Lilith came to me the next morning, her smile calm, her eyes too watchful.

“You’re troubled, my love,” she said.

“You were speaking to something,” I said. “In the garden. You were summoning it.”

“You dream too much.”

“I saw it.”

She touched my cheek. “And now it’s seeing you.”

I slapped her hand away.

“I’m leaving,” I said. “I’m going to find her.”

Lilith’s face went still. The mask dropped for just a moment.

“Don’t be foolish.” She said and trying to grab my hand, I suddenly dropped it in my pocket. 

“She’s alive. I *feel* her.”

“She’ll destroy you.”

I turned and walked out. In secret, I began packing.

Only one man saw me—Rian, my oldest friend, and still loyal.

“You’re going alone?” he asked, frowning.

“I don’t know who I can trust.”

He nodded slowly. “You’ll be hunted.”

“I know.”

Rian looked at me for a long time. Then he opened the armory and handed me a dagger.

“This belonged to her,” he said. “She dropped it the night she vanished. I kept it. Didn’t know why.”

I held it carefully. The hilt still carried her warmth, somehow. My throat tightened.

“Thank you,” I said.

“May the gods walk with you,” Rian whispered.

At dawn, I left through the south gate.

No guards. No goodbyes.

Just me, my horse, and the wind.

I didn’t know where I was moving to. But my chest felt like a compass. The bond pulled me east. Toward the old lands. Toward the Hollow Tree.

I hadn’t thought about it in some months, but now her voice echoed in my mind.

“Kael, if you ever remember—find the Hollow Tree.”

She said it just before she vanished. Her last words. I hadn’t listened.

Now I would.

The land changed quickly as I rode. The trees grew blacker. The skies are darker. Even the birds stopped singing. I didn’t care.

I was closer to her. I felt it.

But just as the sun began to rise behind the hills, the world broke.

Literally.

A sound—sharp and deep—ripped through the air like the sky itself was being torn open.

I looked up.

A long, jagged *wound* opened in the clouds. Not lightning. Not natural.

A rift.

Darkness poured from it, thick and alive. A shape emerged—massive, winged, cloaked in shadows that twisted and screamed. It didn’t fly. It hovered.

Watching.

Its eyes—burning red—locked on me.

It knew.

It *knew* where I was going.

And it was coming for me.

I kicked the horse hard and rode faster than I ever had before, the shawl tied tight around my arm and Aria’s dagger in my belt.

Because whatever that thing was…

It wasn’t going to stop.

And neither was I.