Chapter 18

Aria's POV

But it was already reaching for him.

The shadow moved fast, black mist with claws, its body made of nothing solid and yet too real. As I screamed his name before I couldn't stop myself.

“Kael!” I muttered.

He turned just as it lunged. Reflex, more than anything, saved him. Rolled and slashed upward. His blade cut through its smoky body, sending a pulse of dark energy in the air. 

Suddenly, the creature screamed, as the sound was high, and terrible, scattered like ash in the wind.

Silence fell. But  I could still hear my heart pounding heavily in my ears. Kael knelt in the dirt, breathing hard, with his shoulders trembling. Then he looked at me straight.

“The bond between us throbbed like a fresh wound.”

I couldn’t move; that was Kael.

Bruised. Dirty. Thinner than I remembered. Eyes sunken and filled with something that looked like sorrow.

He opened his mouth, but no words came.

Behind me, soldiers burst into the clearing. Swords drawn. Kael didn’t fight any of them.

He just knelt there, silent. And he didn’t take his eyes off me. They brought him to the main camp, tied but not shackled. He didn’t resist, not even when Cato barked orders or shoved him forward.

I was standing near the edge of the courtyard, just behind the old healer’s hut. I couldn’t make myself go closer.

Not until I saw Nessa step out from the den, carrying my daughter in her arms.

Kael’s eyes found them instantly. As he immediately stopped walking, and his knees buckled.

He dropped to the ground with shaking hands. For a second, I thought he would fall flat on his face.

But he just stared. Like the sight of our daughter had taken the air from his lungs.

“That’s…” his voice cracked. “She’s mine?” He said calmly.

I stayed back. My hands were fists at my sides. “You don’t get to ask that now.”

Turning his eyes slowly to meet mine, and careful as if I might vanish if he moved too fast.

“Aria… I didn’t know. If I had—”

“You didn’t ask.” I interrupted him.

“I didn’t know what was real.”

“You knew I was real.”

His jaw clenched. “I was broken.”

I took a step forward, heat rushing up my throat. “You still are.” He lowered his eyes, and his voice was soft. “You’re right.”

Cato stepped in, always too loud when silence hurt the most.

“You want us to believe this creature came here to apologize?” he said. “No guard. No flag. No honor.”

Kael didn’t even look at him.

“I came to see her,” he said. “To remember what I gave up.” He added 

Cato scoffed. “You were cursed when you left, and now you’re worse. Whatever followed you into that forest—”

“Wasn’t me,” Kael said. “It hunts me too.”

That silenced everyone for a moment.

Kael looked back at me. “I remembered something,” he said softly. “About the Moon Queen. About you. About us.”

My stomach twisted. “Stop,” I said, staring at him.

“She died because she trusted someone,” he said. “Someone with my face. But it wasn’t me, Aria. I swear—

“You told me that you weren’t the one who put a sword in my chest?”

Lowering his voice. “I saw it too,” he said.

I blinked. “You remembered?”

He nodded. “I saw myself kill you. But it wasn’t me. It was, and it wasn’t. I don’t know how to explain it. The memories feel... tangled.”

I stepped closer, staring him down.

“Do you know how many nights I woke up choking? Seeing that blade again? That smile on your face?”

“I wasn’t smiling.”

“You were,” I snapped. “You were calm. Cold. Like you enjoyed it.”

His knees bent again, like the memory weighed more than he could carry.

“I don’t know who that version of me was,” he said. “But I’m not him. I swear to you.”

I wanted to believe him, but I couldn’t. Not when my daughter’s life depended on being right.

Later that day, Elias found me outside the training yard. He didn’t say anything at first. Just stood next to me as I watched the moon rise over the hills.

“He’s not entirely himself,” he said at last.

“You felt it too?”

Elias nodded. “His aura—it’s like cracked glass. Light seeps out, but something darker moves in the cracks. Something ancient.”

“Cato thinks he’s cursed.”

“I think he’s infected.”

I turned. “By what?”

Elias frowned. “That’s what I don’t know. But whatever it is, it’s not of his making. It’s been stitched into him like a parasite.”

I swallowed. “Can it be removed?” I asked.

“Maybe.”

“And if it can’t?”

Elias looked away. “Then the man you loved will be gone for good.”

I already felt like he was. I visited him one last time that night.

He was alone in the holding tent, seated cross-legged on the floor, folding his hands like he was praying.

He didn’t look up when I entered.

“Why did you really come?” I asked.

“To say I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want your guilt.” I quickly replied to him.

“I don’t expect forgiveness.”

I took a deep breath. “You think one apology changes what happened?”

“No.”

“You think coming here with blood on your hands and shadows at your back means anything to me?”

“No.”

“Then, what do you think?”

He lifted his eyes, and they were rimmed red. “That I had to try.”

I stood there, staring at his eyes.

He didn’t beg, and didn’t cry. He just stayed. Still and quiet. Waiting.

It hurt more than I expected.

“I’m giving you until dawn,” I said. “To leave Crimson territory. You walk out, and you don’t come back.”

“And if I stay?” He asked, with a brave voice.

I hesitated. “Then I’ll forget I ever loved you.”

He flinched like I’d hit him.

But he nodded. “Then I’ll go.”

I left the tent, but I didn’t go far.

My daughter is asleep in my arms now. I sat beneath the old birch tree near the camp wall.

She breathed softly against my shoulder.

But my heart wasn’t soft. It was steel.

I had to be strong for her. Even if it meant killing the last pieces of Kael still clinging to me.

But the night wasn’t done. As I stood to return to the den, a low wind swept across the hills.

And I felt it. Something to watch, and I turned my head slowly.

The silver-furred wolf stood again on the ridge.

Unmoving. A sentinel.

But this time… it wasn’t alone.

A tall, dark figure stood beside it. Dressed in robes the color of dried blood.

Its face is hidden beneath a crown of bones.

But its eyes glowed gold. And when it spoke, I felt it in my bones.

“Solara,” it whispered.

I froze. That name… from another life. Only one person ever called me that. And he had died with a blade through his chest—by my hand.

But that voice…It was his.