Lyra's POV
White light explodes around me, and suddenly I'm not falling anymore.
I'm standing.
The Veil has deposited me in a grand hall that takes my breath away. Marble columns reach toward a ceiling painted with stars. Candles float in the air without any supports. People in elegant robes move past me like I'm invisible.
Because I am invisible. This is a memory, not reality.
"This isn't right." I spin around, searching for Kade. "Where are you?"
But he's not here. We got separated in the fall. I'm alone in my own past, watching my previous life unfold like a play I never asked to see.
Then I see her.
Past-Lyria stands at the center of the hall, and she's magnificent. Confident. Powerful. Everything I'm not. She wears silver robes that shimmer with magic, and her violet eyes spark with intelligence and barely contained anger.
She's arguing with someone.
I move closer, drawn by a need I don't understand. That's when I see who she's fighting with.
Past-Kade.
He looks so young. So alive. No scar on his face, no weight of grief in his eyes. But even then, even in this happier version, I can see the warrior beneath—strong, protective, stubborn.
"You're not listening to me!" past-Lyria snaps.
"I'm listening," past-Kade replies, crossing his arms. "I just don't agree."
"Maelis is dangerous. The experiments he's conducting—they're wrong, Kade. He's stealing people's memories and weaponizing them."
My blood runs cold. So it's true. Even back then, Maelis was a monster.
Past-Kade's expression darkens. "Do you have proof?"
"I found his journals. I've seen the lab beneath his tower. Kade, he's been doing this for years. Right under the Council's nose."
"Then we go to the Council—"
"Half the Council is in his pocket!" past-Lyria's voice rises in frustration. "He's been buying their loyalty with stolen power. If we expose him without enough evidence, he'll destroy us first."
Past-Kade steps closer, his voice gentler now. "Then what do you want to do?"
"I want to gather proof. Real, undeniable proof. And then—" She takes a shaky breath. "—then I want us to leave. Together. Let someone else fight this battle."
"You know we can't do that."
"Why not?" Tears shine in her eyes. "Why does it always have to be us? Why can't we just be happy?"
Past-Kade pulls her into his arms, and the tenderness in the gesture makes my heart ache. "Because people are suffering. Because we have the power to stop it. Because it's the right thing to do."
"I'm tired of doing the right thing," past-Lyria whispers against his chest. "I just want to live. I want to marry you and have a quiet life and forget all about Maelis and his evil."
"We will." He tilts her face up to look at him. "After this is done, we'll have all of that. I promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep."
"I never do."
They kiss, and I have to look away. The intimacy feels too private, too raw. This was my life once, but it feels like watching strangers.
The scene shifts abruptly.
Now past-Lyria is alone in a dark laboratory, searching through papers and journals. Her hands shake as she reads, horror growing on her face with each page.
"Oh gods," she breathes. "He's trying to control reincarnation. He thinks if he steals enough memories, he can force souls to remember their past lives. He wants to create an army of people who remember everything—people he can control."
The implications hit me like a physical blow. That's why Maelis wants me. Not just for the knowledge I locked away, but because if he can force me to remember, he can prove his theory works. I'm his test subject.
The scene shifts again.
Battle. Fire. Chaos.
I'm back at the moment Maelis showed me—the final fight. But this time, I'm experiencing it through past-Lyria's eyes, feeling every emotion, every terror.
We're losing. Maelis's forces outnumber us ten to one. Past-Kade is fighting beside me, but even his legendary skill can't hold off this many enemies.
"We need to retreat!" he shouts over the sounds of battle.
"There's nowhere to run!" I—she—scream back.
That's when I see it. Maelis himself, standing on a balcony above the chaos, watching with cold satisfaction.
"Surrender the knowledge, Lyria!" his voice booms across the battlefield. "Surrender, and I'll let Kade live!"
Past-Kade's eyes meet mine—desperate, terrified, but still defiant.
"Don't," he says. "Don't give him anything."
But I know we're going to die anyway. I can feel it in my bones. The only question is whether Maelis gets what he wants.
An enemy soldier swings at me. Past-Kade throws himself in front of the blade.
"NO!"
The sword pierces his chest. He falls into my arms, blood pouring from the wound.
"No, no, no—" I'm sobbing, trying to heal him with magic, but it's too late. The wound is too deep. "You promised. You promised we'd have more time."
"I'm sorry," he gasps, blood on his lips. "Find me. In the next life. Promise you'll find me."
"I promise. I'll find you in every lifetime."
His eyes close. His breathing stops.
And something inside me breaks.
Power explodes outward—raw, uncontrolled, devastating. I'm screaming and the world is ending and I don't care because Kade is dead and nothing else matters.
The magic tears through Maelis's forces. But I'm dying too. The effort is consuming me from the inside out.
With my last breath, I cast the curse on myself. Lock away everything Maelis wants. Make myself forget so completely that even if he finds my soul in the next life, he won't be able to access what I know.
"I'll forget you," I whisper to Kade's body. "I'll forget everything. But my soul will remember. Somehow, I'll find my way back to you."
Then darkness takes me.
I wake up screaming.
Not in the Veil anymore. In reality. In the temple.
Kade is beside me, holding my shoulders, his face pale with concern. "Lyra! Look at me. You're here. You're safe."
But I'm not safe. Nothing about this is safe.
I look down at my arms and gasp.
The curse mark has spread completely. Every inch of my skin glows with silver lines. My hands, my arms, my face—I'm more curse than human now.
And the worst part? I can feel my current memories starting to slip away. The last three years of my life—Seris, my shop, the quiet happiness I built—all of it is fading like smoke.
"Kade." My voice is barely a whisper. "I'm forgetting. Not just the past life. I'm forgetting now too. I'm forgetting Seris. I'm forgetting my shop. I'm—" Panic claws at my throat. "I'm forgetting who I am."
His hands frame my face, forcing me to focus on him. "No. You're not going to forget. I won't let you."
"You can't stop a curse."
"Watch me." His voice is steel and determination. "You broke the curse in the Veil. I watched you do it. The memories are unlocked. Now we just need to get you out of here before—"
The temple shakes violently.
Stones fall from the ceiling. The floor cracks beneath us.
"Before what?" I demand.
Kade's expression turns grim. "Before the temple collapses. The Veil is destabilizing. When you broke the curse, you released all the magical energy that was holding it in place. This entire structure is coming down."
As if to prove his point, a massive column crashes to the ground inches from where we stand.
"Can you walk?" Kade asks.
I try to stand and nearly collapse. My legs won't hold me. The curse consumed too much.
"I'll carry you." He scoops me up like I weigh nothing. "Hold on."
We run through the collapsing temple, dodging falling debris and crumbling walls. My vision blurs in and out. I can feel consciousness slipping away.
"Stay with me!" Kade orders. "Don't you dare leave me again!"
"Trying," I mumble.
We're almost to the exit when a voice stops us cold.
"Going somewhere?"
Isla steps out from behind a pillar, blocking our path. But she's not alone. Behind her stand a dozen soldiers, all with weapons drawn.
And in the center of them all, smiling like a cat who caught a mouse, is Councilor Maelis.
"Thank you for breaking the curse, my dear Lyria," he says smoothly. "Saved me the trouble. Now—" His eyes gleam with malice. "—let's discuss what happens next."
Kade sets me down carefully, putting himself between Maelis and me. His hand goes to his sword.
"You're not taking her."
"I don't need to take her." Maelis laughs. "Look at her, Commander. She's already dying. The curse breaking released all those locked memories at once. Her mind can't handle it. In a few minutes, her brain will simply... shut down. Death by information overload."
Horror floods through me because I can feel it happening. Memories flooding in faster than I can process. Two lifetimes colliding in my head. It's too much. It's going to kill me.
"Unless," Maelis continues, "you let me help her. I can filter the memories. Control the flow. Save her life."
"And in exchange?" Kade's voice is deadly quiet.
"She tells me everything she knows about memory magic. Every secret. Every technique. And then—" His smile widens. "—she works for me. Forever."
Kade's sword is out in a flash. "Over my dead body."
"That can be arranged."
Maelis raises his hand, and every soldier draws their weapon simultaneously.
We're outnumbered. I'm dying. The temple is collapsing.
There's no way out.
Kade looks back at me, and in his eyes, I see a terrible decision being made.
"I'm sorry," he whispers.
Then he raises his sword—not toward Maelis, but toward me.
My eyes widen in shock and betrayal.
"Kade, what are you—"
"Trust me," he says. "One more time. Trust me."
And he drives the blade straight toward my heart.