The light around the figure flickers, turning translucent, bleeding back into the trees.
“Live well. Love fiercely. And remember—you fought lifetimes for this. Do not let the cold in again.”
And then they’re gone.
The clearing plunges into a sudden, heavy silence. The roar of the divine light is replaced by the soft hiss of snow hitting the dying embers.
Micah’s body still lies in the snow, a tragic reminder of the price of the debt.
Lumi and I stand together, our bodies pressed tight, our hearts finally beating in the same century. We are finally whole. Finally free.
But as the last of the embers goes out, the god’s voice rings out one final time. It is different than before, just a whisper now.
“Keep watch, Caelen. When winter is at its softest, look for the frostburrow beetles. You’ll know then... that she carries more than just your name.”
53
Chapter 54-
LumiPOV-
Day 5 of heat cycle.
The God is gone.The fire is dim. The forest exhales, a long, shivering breath through the trees. We’re left standing in the circle with nothing but silence, snow, and the staggering weight of everything we know now.
Andrik’s armsare still wrapped around me, holding me so tightly I can barely breathe. I wouldn’t trade it, though. I don’t ever want him to let go.
Behind us,Micah's body lies still. Peaceful, almost. Like he’s finally resting after lifetimes of being led astray by the gods who let him believe my soul was the destination, when I was only carrying a piece of his true mate.
“We should—”my voice cracks. “We should do something. For him.”
Andrik’s grip loosens slightly.He turns, his gaze fixed on the quiet form of his twin. He doesn’t say anything for so long, I think the silence might swallow us both.
“He tried,”Andrik says at last, his voice cracking. “In his own broken, desperate way... he tried.”
“But he failed,”I whisper.
“So did I. Once.”He looks down at me, his usual blue eyes are filled with darkness. “I failed to see what Therin could have become. I failed to protect you on that cliff. I let the world slip through my fingers.”
“That wasn’t your fault, Caelen.”
“And this wasn’t entirely his.”He gestures toward Micah. “The Gods gave him an impossible task: control the darkness of someone else, let go of the obsession they planted in him. How do you ask a man to do that when he has never known anything else? When the only light he ever saw was reflected in you.”
He pauses,his gaze dropping to where I’m flush against his chest. His grip tightens, almost painfully.
“If it had been me,”he admits, his voice dropping to a choked whisper. “If I had been the one the Gods misled... I wouldn’t have been able to walk away either. Once you feel that pull—that soul-deep ache that tells you the world begins and ends with a single person—you can’t just ‘let go.’ You follow it until it consumes you. I would have burned every kingdom to the ground to get back to you, Lumi. The only difference between us is that the Gods gave me the right map, and they gave him a broken one.”
Tears burn in my eyes,burning against the bitter cold.
“He gets another chance, though,”I say quietly. “The God said so.”
“Yes.”Andrik’s hand cups the back of my neck, thumb tracing circles along my skin, “And maybe next time, he’ll find the light that was actually meant for him.”
We build a cairn.We gather stones from the forest, stacking them with an overwhelming sense of grief. It isn’t a grave—Aureliane will come for the body eventually—but it is a marker. An acknowledgment of a life that never really had a chance.
I pressmy hand to the top stone and say a silent prayer:
Here liesa soul who loved wrong, but loved deeply. May his next life bring him the peace he couldn’t find in this one.
