The Grove released them at last.
Mist thinned into streaks of pale gold, curling off the ground as dawn broke through the trees. The air smelled of rain and smoke, old fire, long gone cold. Leira's boots sank into the softened soil as she stepped past the tree line, her wrist still glowing faintly with the light she had reclaimed.
Kael followed close behind, his movements slow, deliberate, as though the forest might still shift beneath his feet. The weight of silence pressed between them, not uneasy, just too heavy for words.
Leira breathed in, and for a moment, she thought she could rest. The Grove was behind her, and the ache in her bones almost felt like peace. But the world did not stay still for long.
Ahead, the mist began to gather again, not white, but tinged with red.
A faint warmth licked the air. The smell of ash returned, stronger this time, too alive to be memory.
"Kael," she whispered, turning to him.
But he wasn't looking at her. His eyes had gone unfocused, fixed on something far beyond her shoulder. "Do you hear that?"
Leira froze. "Hear what?"
He blinked, brow furrowing. "A voice. I thought…" He stopped. Then shook his head as if to clear it. "Never mind. It's gone."
The wind shifted. Heat brushed her cheek. The earth beneath her boots pulsed once, faint and rhythmic, like a heartbeat in the soil.
She turned back toward the mist. The gold light on her wrist flickered.
And then she heard it, the faint crackle of fire, so soft it could've been her imagination.
Before she could speak, the warmth deepened. Her pulse stumbled. The world bent around her, light flaring too bright, air twisting like glass about to shatter.
"Kael?" she breathed. But his shape had already begun to blur, like a reflection rippling on water. His mouth moved, she thought he said her name, and then the world split open.
The forest vanished.
She was standing in darkness.
The air was thick and heavy, and somewhere ahead, embers glowed in a perfect circle, floating above charred ground. No trees. No sky. Just ash stretching endlessly around her.
Her breath came fast. Every sound felt too close, her own heartbeat, the faint crackle of dying fire.
The warmth here wasn't gentle. It pressed against her skin, sharp and insistent, like it wanted to pull her apart.
This was not the Grove. This was something else, something older, more deliberate.
She took a step forward, boots crunching over brittle ash. The air shimmered, and for a moment, she saw shapes within the heat, faces flickering in the smoke. Same faces as before.
One of them looked like Kael. Another… the same man again, Cassian.
Her throat tightened.
"Leira."
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It wasn't Kael's. It wasn't her own. It was soft, almost tender, but laced with something sharp beneath it.
She spun around, searching. "Who's there?"
No answer. Just the fire, glowing brighter.
The embers began to move, swirling into a slow spiral. The heat grew harsher, bending the air into waves that made her vision blur.
Leira shielded her face with her arm, squinting through the shimmer. Inside the spiral, something was forming, a figure made of flame and shadow.
It stepped forward. Its outline flickered, half human, half echo. When it spoke again, the voice was hers.
"Do you trust him?"
Leira's heart lurched. "What?"
The echo tilted its head, and for a moment, its face was Kael's, eyes gray and kind. Then the image shifted, melting into Cassian's, his mouth twisting with disappointment.
The sight stole her breath.
"You give your light to anyone who reaches for it," the echo whispered. "You burn for them… until there's nothing left for yourself."
"I don't…"
"Don't what?" The figure stepped closer. Its voice softened, cruelly gentle. "Don't love him? Don't miss the one who left you bleeding? Don't fear you'll be betrayed again?"
She didn't know what the voice was speaking about but the words made her chest clench. The heat was unbearable now, sweat streaking her temples.
"Stop," she said through her teeth.
But the echo didn't stop. "How many times will you trust a hand that promises not to let go?"
The words struck something deep. A memory flashed; Cassian's back as he walked away, Kael's hand reaching for hers in the Grove. Two promises. One broken. One untested.
Her throat felt raw. "You're not real, you're another test, another echo."
"I'm what's left when trust burns," it said.
And then the ground cracked. Fire surged up in a ring around her, blinding and alive. The figure dissolved into smoke.
Leira stumbled back, shielding her face, coughing against the heat. The air turned molten, her pulse thundering in her ears. The mark on her wrist pulsed with light, but it was fading, dimming under the fire's glare.
She reached for it, desperate, but the light slipped from her fingers like ash.
"Kael!" she screamed. But her voice was devoured by flame.
The fire roared higher, and in the midst of it, just before the world burned away, she heard something again.
Her name. Soft, aching, almost familiar.
She knew it was her name. But the flames swallowed it once again, before she could hold it.
Meanwhile In the real world, the forest was alive with chaos.
Leira hung suspended a few feet above the ground, her body trembling, eyes gone a molten gray. The air around her shimmered, rippling with unseen heat.
Kael stood just below her, voice hoarse from shouting. "Leira! You have to fight it. Fight it with everything you've got!"
But she didn't move. She was deep in a trance, and it held her like a spell, her body caught between two worlds. Her lips parted, a soundless breath escaping, her pulse glowing faintly beneath her skin.
The light on her wrist flared once more… then dimmed.
And the world, for both of them, held its breath.