Lahat ng Kabanata ng Incubus Reborn: Sleepless promise: Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

Seraphina stormed into the atrium, still gripping the edge of the dream-charm that had shattered against her palm. The silver threads in her vision hadn’t stopped shimmering since Astra collapsed.Lucan was pacing beside the infirmary door. “Is she awake?”“She’s breathing,” he said without looking at her. “But barely.”“I saw it,” Seraphina whispered. “I saw her fall through the flame. That wasn’t just a memory.”Lucan finally turned. “What did you see exactly?”“Hands,” Seraphina said, her voice tightening. “Covered in that same violet flame… pulling her into something. It wasn’t a dream. It was real.”Lucan’s jaw clenched. “Then we’re out of time.”“What do you mean?”Before she could finish, the door creaked open. Astra stood there, pale and trembling, her fingers digging into the frame for balance.“Don’t—don’t touch me,” she rasped. “It’s still in me.”Lucan moved forward instinctively, but Seraphina held him back. “Wait. Let her speak.”Astra’s eyes flickered with a faint silve

The air in the dreamscape fractured like glass under pressure. Astra lay unconscious, her body glowing faintly beneath the surface of violet mist. Seraphina stood frozen, her pulse loud in her ears, eyes fixed on the man emerging from the shadows.Not a man—something older. Something ancient.Lucan’s voice dropped into a gravelled whisper. “Caelum.”Caelum’s obsidian wings dragged behind him like the shadow of a falling star. He was taller than Lucan, darker in aura, with silver-threaded black hair that coiled like smoke around his face. His eyes—glowing crimson—never left Seraphina.“She looks just like her,” he murmured. “You always find her, Lucan. You always lose her.”Seraphina’s mouth parted. “You know me?”Lucan stepped between them. “Don’t speak to him.”Caelum’s laughter was low, amused. “Still playing knight? Even now?” He flicked a finger toward Astra, still limp. “You let her touch the gate, Lucan. You’ve opened the doorway between our world and theirs.”Lucan’s fists clen

Lucan didn’t move. His breath stayed caught somewhere in his chest, and his eyes refused to leave Caelum’s.“Why now?” Lucan rasped. “Why are you here now?”Caelum tilted his head with infuriating calm. His wings—vast and jagged, shadow threaded with burning gold—folded behind him as he stepped into the moonlight.“Because the seals are breaking,” Caelum said, his voice low and deliberate. “And your soul bond has finally begun to wake her.”Seraphina stepped between them before Lucan could react. “Wait. Who is he exactly? You said he was like you, but…”Lucan didn’t take his eyes off Caelum. “He’s the first. The original. The one who made the pact with the Sleepless One. The reason the curse exists.”Caelum smiled. “Not the reason. Just the mistake.”Seraphina frowned, glancing between them. “So what do you want from us?”“I want what I always wanted,” Caelum replied softly. “For the bond to survive. But more importantly, for the truth to come out.”Astra, still pale from the collapsi

The dream hadn’t let go of Astra entirely. Not yet.Seraphina could tell from the way her friend’s eyes flicked to shadows no one else saw, how her shoulders tensed whenever someone spoke her name. She was awake, yes. Free, technically. But her soul had returned with scars.“She doesn’t remember everything,” Caelum said, keeping pace beside Seraphina in the west courtyard. “Not the worst parts.”“She will,” Seraphina murmured. “I think it’s still inside her, hiding. Waiting for the right moment.”They paused near the old willow. Students milled about in nervous clusters nearby, some whispering, others staring openly. Word had spread fast: Astra had survived contact with the Sleepless One.And that scared people more than if she hadn’t.Lucan joined them moments later, coat dusted with the ash from the ruined chamber. “I’ve been watching the wards. They’re pulsing erratically. That thing isn’t just retreating—it’s adapting.”Caelum crossed his arms. “You think it’s coming back stronger

“You didn’t tell me there were others,” Seraphina whispered, staring at the ancient carvings along the ruined corridor beneath Duskmoor.Lucan didn’t look at her. His eyes were on the pulsing violet sigils across the wall. “Because there weren’t supposed to be.”“You said this place was built to contain dreamwalkers,” she said, her voice tightening. “But you didn’t say it was to contain… people like me.”Lucan turned slowly. “I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you what I wasn’t ready to admit.”Seraphina stepped back, her palm brushing the wall. The rune on her skin flared faintly in response.The deeper they walked into the heart of the ruins, the louder her heartbeat became—like something ancient inside her was pounding to get out.“Tell me now,” she demanded.Lucan’s voice was quiet, but steady. “This temple was a sanctuary once. Then it became a prison. The founders of Duskmoor were dreamwalkers themselves—but they feared what came with it. They sealed away the ones who awakened… li