The light that erupts when their hands touch isn't fire.
It's memory.
Kael and Lyra are lifted off their feet, suspended in a cyclone of everything they were—every wound, every laugh, every glance that lingered too long. The ember pulses between them, then melts into their skin, no longer a thing apart.
It becomes them.
And suddenly, the world around them groans.
The Mirror Wastes begin to collapse.
The echoes—those fractured reflections of Lyra—are breaking down, drifting into dust and stardust. The glass flowers shatter in cascades. The throne of lost selves crumbles into mist.
This place, the in-between, is dying.
Kael tightens his grip on her hand. "We need to go. Now."
Lyra looks at the destruction without fear. "I think… it's okay. It was never meant to last."
They run—not through space, but through memory, through light. The world melts around them, trying to pull them back, trying to make them forget again. But Lyra's voice keeps them grounded.
> "Remember the cliffs. The city lights. The way the wind sounded when you said my name."
Kael answers without hesitation.
> "I never stopped saying it."
---
They burst out of the in-between in a flash of white fire.
Back into the real world.
But not where they left.
They awaken in the ruins of the old temple, the sky outside cracked and bleeding violet. Silver City is in chaos—creatures born of time and shadow roam the streets, the wound in the sky still open.
Lyra stumbles, breathing hard. Her body is weak, fading in places like smoke.
Kael catches her. "You're not fully back. You're still tethered."
"I need something to anchor me," she gasps. "Something real."
He presses his forehead to hers.
"I'm real."
Their bond surges. A ring of fire ignites around them—not destructive, but cleansing. A circle of protection. Lyra's form stabilizes, solidifying with each heartbeat. The ember's warmth blossoms in her chest.
Then Arin appears, breathless, robes singed. "You did it," he says in disbelief. "You brought her back."
But he doesn't look relieved.
Because overhead, the sky screams.
The wound in the heavens widens, and something massive stirs beyond it.
Kael looks up. "We didn't just open the door to get her out."
Lyra rises to her feet, energy dancing at her fingertips.
"We opened it both ways."
---
The battle is coming.
But this time, they face it together.
And they are not what they were.
They are something new.
Ash and ember. Memory and fire. Love and fury.
---