For the first time, Kaelith heard it. Not through Rin.
Not through some distant memory. Not through a dream. He heard the voice himself.
"My love…"
Kaelith froze.
Rin slowly turned toward him. Neither of them spoke. The darkness behind the thirteenth door remained completely still.
Then the voice came again.
"Aelion…"
Rin's breath caught. Kaelith's expression changed.
Not anger. Not fear. Recognition. Something deep inside him had reacted before his mind could understand why.
He stepped toward the doorway. Rin immediately caught his sleeve.
"Wait."
Kaelith looked at him.
"I know that voice."
Rin's eyes widened.
"You do?"
Kaelith nodded slowly.
"I don't know from where."
The voice laughed softly from the darkness. Kaelith's entire body went rigid. The words struck him harder than any attack.
Because they sounded familiar. Not merely familiar. They sounded like something someone had said to him countless times.
Someone he had forgotten. Someone he had lost.
