Freya's pov The explosion wasn’t fire but not entirely.It was sound like pressure. Time itself was folding like glass under a scream.I hit the ground, my vision blinding white, my ears ringing like I was standing in the center of a collapsing star. Somewhere through the chaos, I heard Kye roar not with pain, but fury the kind of fury that came from fear.“KYE!” I screamed, reaching blindly through the heat and ash.He found me somehow, always his arms locking around my waist, dragging me behind one of the fractured temple columns just as a second wave tore through the chamber. The masked stranger didn’t move. He walked through the wreckage like it was wind, the twin pendant at his chest glowing brighter with every step.“You’re not real,” I gasped, pressing my back to the stone. “You’re not meant to exist.”He tilted his head, the bone mask catching the light like a skull. “Neither are you. You should have died on the first path. But something... changed.”I gritted my teeth. “I
Freya's pov “You keep looking at me like that,” Kye murmured, voice husky as the fire cast gold across his bare chest. “Like you’re one second away from either kissing me… or killing me.”I didn’t blink. “Maybe I haven’t decided yet.”His smile was a slow, dangerous thing. “Then let me make the choice easy.”He stepped closer, the space between us vanishing, stolen by the gravity that had always pulled us together — fierce, hungry, unstoppable. His fingers brushed my waist, slow, deliberate, like he was memorizing every inch of me before the world shattered again.“You still smell like smoke and magic,” he whispered at my neck, breath hot. “You don’t know what that does to me.”My voice was a whisper of defiance. “Tell me.”He didn’t. He pressed his lips to the hollow beneath my jaw, and heat shot down my spine like lightning. It wasn’t gentle , it was raw, claiming, like he needed to brand me with the truth we kept denying: that everything else, war, fate, the rift could burn, and
Freya's pov The pendant pulsed again and really weak now, like a dying heartbeat beneath my skin. It was the first time since we found it that the rhythm faltered, and it sent a cold shiver down my spine. Kye’s fingers tightened around mine, anchoring me to this moment, this fragile peace that threatened to slip away like smoke.“We can’t wait,” I said. “The rift might be closed, but it’s not sealed. Not for good.”Kye’s jaw clenched. “Then we find the source. We end it, once and for all.”I nodded, feeling a fierce, raw determination rise inside me. The battle we’d fought was only the beginning. Something darker was stirring beneath the surface of this world, beneath the thin veil of quiet that had settled.We set off before dawn, following the pendant’s faint glow. It led us through tangled forests where shadows clung like cobwebs, the air thick with the scent of ash. The trees whispered secrets, their branches clawing at the sky as if desperate to tear open the heavens and spill f
Logan's pov The night air was thick with ash and cold sweat. Freya’s lips still burned where I’d felt them—fierce, desperate, the kind of kiss that said we’d survived the nightmare together but the war wasn’t over. I wiped the blood from my temple, tasting iron and something else—hope? Or maybe it was just adrenaline messing with me.Her eyes were dark pools in the flickering firelight, wide and unyielding. I knew that look. It was the same one I wore when I was ready to fight till my last breath.But this time, it wasn’t just for me. It was for her. For us.I kept watch while the others slept, but my mind raced back to that creature and her. The shadow Freya fought, the thing wearing her face but not her soul.She’d been a mirror to the girl I loved, a fractured reflection of everything Freya had lost and tried to bury.And now? Now I knew what I had to do.I stood and moved toward the cliff’s edge, the pendant’s pulse faint but steady in my pocket. I traced the jagged scars of the
Freya's pov Talia was still asleep when I woke, curled tightly beneath Mira’s cloak, the pendant now tucked inside my satchel. I hadn’t dreamed, but the weight of the other me—the girl with white hair, the one who’d paid the price—clung to me like frost.Outside, the dawn was pale and unwilling.Kye was already up, crouched by the doorway, sharpening his blade with the kind of focus that looked like distraction. He didn’t speak when I stepped out, just passed me half of a dried ration and nodded toward the rising sun.“How long do you think we have?” I asked, keeping my voice low.“Before whatever came through finishes what it started?” he asked, glancing sideways. “Not long.”We stood in silence, the kind that wasn’t heavy, just honest.Then he added, “Do you regret it?”I turned to him. “The kiss?”His lips quirked slightly. “The choice. To be the one who came back.”I swallowed hard. “I think… I regret not knowing what it cost. Not remembering what I traded for this version of mys
Freya's pov The village was colder than it should have been but not just from the altitude or the way the wind curled low around the ruined buildings, it was an absence to complete it felt like a scream that was really swallowed all up.We moved through the narrow paths, quiet and alert. The ground was scattered with bits of broken things like shattered pottery, torn satchels, pieces of lives that had been left behind too quickly.“They left in a hurry,” Rowan said, kneeling to examine a trail of deep footprints in the mud. “No time to pack. No time to think.”“No time to fight either” Kye added.He was standing close again more than he had before, like proximity might protect me from what was coming or from what we might still become.My fingers brushed the sigil under my bandage. The warmth had faded, but something else stirred in its place. A soft hum, like breath walked past us.“We’re being watched,” I said.That wasn't a question, that was the truth.Kye didn’t look away from t