I moved toward it.
This one looked different than the rest. There was no shimmer, no fractured light. Only a soft, steady thrum of a heartbeat trying not to fail.
I crouched, my hand trembling as I reached for it.
The world around me melted into nothing, then reformed. She sat on the sofa in our sitting area, with the fire sparking and snapping in the grate beyond the low table. She’d placed the two talismanson the wooden surface in front of her, and her hand hovered over them.
With a groan, she dropped her head. Her hand settled on her thigh.
“What if I’m not enough?” she asked no one.
The crumbling sound of her voice ripped through me worse than a scream. I’d heard her shout in battle. Laugh at the stars. Whisper love against my throat. But I’d never heard her like this.
“What if I lose him because I wasn’t clever enough? Fast enough?Strongenough?” Her voice cracked. Her hands clenched her knees, and she stared at the fire as if it would give her an answer.
“I’m trying,” she said. “By the fates, I am trying.” Her shoulders curled, and she covered her face with both hands. Sobs shook her spine.
Her hands dropped to her sides. “I’ll give myself in place of him.” Her voice shook. “I was born with nothing. He gave me a reason to become something. If that costs me everything, then so be it. Let me be the one to burn. As long as he gets to stand in the light.”
As the weight of her words sank into my bones, the shard burned my fingers. But I held tight.
Reyla’s kind of love didn’t ask questions. It didn’t hesitate. It sacrificed like she had when Prager attacked. She'd used her own shadow, and Prager had twisted the spell and sent it back at her. Perhaps the labyrinth did take. Whatever it took from her gave Prager the opening she needed to hurt Reyla.
She’d bled herself into every shard, and what remained was whole, but barely. While I was a man stitched back together again from her love, made real by her fire. Losing her would mean losing the only truth I’d ever believed in, the kind that didn’t answer to the fates or destiny.
It hurt to watch someone acknowledge that they'd die for their love. Yet I would sacrifice everything to do the same for her.
I’d thought she was invincible. I’d believed she was fire incarnate, sent to carry me through the dark. But here she was, praying to survive the weight of me. And still, she bore it. Alone.
Reyla had fought the curse, the talismans, and even Prager, and she still wondered if she was enough.
When the shard slipped from my fingers, I staggered back, a choked breath rising up my throat. “You’ve always been enough. I’m the one who couldn’t see it. But I’m here now, my heart bared, and I do see all of you now. I’m ready to bear your burdens.” Tipping my head back, I shouted. “Let me save you back. You were never meant to break for me.”
I stood in the center of the fractured landscape, surrounded by the pieces of her pain, and felt the truth settle into my bones.
“Every shard,” I said, turning slowly to take in the glittering fragments scattered around me. “Every memory. Every moment where you bled and no one stayed to bandage the wounds.”
My voice grew stronger, carrying across the broken realm. “But I'm staying, love. Through every memory, every fear, every piece of your beautiful, wounded heart.” I spread my arms wide, addressing the altered world that held her essence. “You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be unbreakable. You just have to be you.”
The air hummed with magic and the weight of promises I was finally ready to make.
The shards I'd touched began to sing, a low, haunting melody that vibrated through my bones. One by one, they lifted from the ground, spinning slowly as they rose. Light caught their smooth surfaces, throwing rainbows across the broken landscape.
The fragments circled overhead like falling stars. The shard holding her childhood pain glowed soft blue. The memory ofKinart's death pulsed deep red. The violation of her magic burned white-hot with fury.
My breath caught as they began to drift toward something I hadn't noticed before, a carved wooden frame standing off to the side. Ancient symbols etched along its sides sparked to life, recognizing the returning pieces of her soul.
“That's it,” I breathed, not daring to move. “It must be how I’ll find you.”
The first shard settled into place with a sound like a bell. Then another. Each piece that clicked home sent ripples of warmth through the fractured realm. I watched, transfixed, as her story rebuilt itself, not just the pain, but the strength that came from surviving it.
My hands trembled. If I moved wrong, if I disturbed the magic weaving her back together, I might lose her forever. The final shard, the one holding her desperate love and sacrifice, hovered for a heartbeat before sliding into place with a chime that shook the air.
Once solid, the image on its surface flickered, and I saw my wildfire. The real Reyla, whole yet still fractured. Worn from battle, lips chapped, scars on her arms, tears streaking paths down her cheeks.
But her eyes… Those were still aflame. Thequeenof flames.
My Reyla.
