“Therin, please. You are half of his soul. You are his brother.”
“And you were supposed to be mine!” he cries out in agony.
Caelen lunges from behind the trees, trying to drive his brother back, but Therin ducks at the last second. He swings at Caelen, a desperate attempt to push his twin aside—to finally stand where he belongs. But Caelen moves, and the world goes cold.
In the chaos, Therin’s hands don’t find his brother’s chest.
They find mine.
The look on his face in that split second—the mask of pure horror when he realizes that loving me—fighting for me—is what cost me everything.
I’m falling.
The sky cracks open. The wind roars in my ears.
“Noo!” Caelen screams a raw, broken wail that shatters the loud rush of water below.
Please... please don’t blame him. He just wanted to be seen.
Two shapes jump from the cliff, following me into the abyss. Both of them refusing to let me face the dark alone.
Everything goes white.
AndrikPOV-
“Lumi!”
She collapses, as if her soul has been snatched from her body. I catch her just before her head hits the frozen ground, pulling her small, trembling frame against my chest.
She convulses in my arms—her eyes fluttering, lips moving in a frantic whisper, mumbling a language I’ve never heard before.
But the forest knows. The trees bow low, their heavy, snow-laden branches sweeping the ground. The wind stops breathing.
And then she speaks a name I haven’t heard in lifetimes
“Caelen.”
The mating circle disappears. The scent of Lumi and my forest is replaced with the scent of fresh water.
I’m not Andrik anymore. I’m standing on a rocky lip of a cliff, the wind tearing at my cloak. There are no antlers crowning my head. I am younger. I am human... and I am terrified.
Naya is there—standing at the very brink, looking down at something below. Her beautiful, dark hair whips behind her like a veil of smoke.
“Stay close,” I hear myself say, yet it’s unburdened by the centuries of heartache. “The Gods are stirring. Something big is coming.”
She turns, the way her face lights up when she looks at me, breaks every wall I have ever built. My chest aches with how much I love her.
The vision flashes.
A moonlit ceremony. The air is sweet with the scent of birch and the first snowdrops blooming in the frost. Her small hand is in mine. A shimmering white stone gleams on her ring finger.
“Naya. My soulbond. MySaelûn.”
The words aren’t just a wedding vow; they are a promise that transcends time, a knot tied by the Fates themselves.
She whispers back, her breath ghosting against my cheek.
“Caelen. My heart. Keeper of my breath.”
