Chapter 6
The air around her was still, yet heavy—like she was breathing inside a dream that remembered pain.
Elira stood frozen as the world of stone and ink vanished, replaced by a vast space of smoke, flickering lights, and shapeless echoes. The library had not disappeared—it had been peeled back, layer by layer, to reveal this secret place.
"Where are we?" she whispered.
Kael's figure stood at a distance, partially veiled in dark mist. "A sealed pocket of your mind. The spell in the ring you accepted was only a key. This… this is the door."
Shadows flickered to life across the dark expanse, forming vague shapes. A girl—her—kneeling in a garden at midnight. A hand reaching for a locked journal. A smile from a man with warm eyes. Then that same smile… twisting.
Memories. Pieces she didn't know she'd forgotten.
But as she reached out, they flickered away, like dust in wind.
"Don't chase them," Kael said. "They'll come when you're ready. But that isn't why we're here."
The ground beneath them pulsed.
A shape emerged from the swirling dark—a blackened mirror rimmed in silver veins. Unlike the shadows, it did not flicker. It stood still. Cold. Watching.
Elira felt her chest tighten.
Inside the mirror stood… her.
But not as she was now.
Her reflection had eyes like ink, lips curled in a cruel smile, and skin as pale as moonlight over a frozen lake. Dressed in a ceremonial robe, hands bloodstained, she held a book bound in living shadows.
She stepped forward instinctively.
The reflection moved in sync—but then, it didn't.
Her mirrored self tilted her head, eyes narrowing. A whisper curled from her lips.
"You remember now, don't you?"
Elira's hand twitched. "Who… are you?"
The reflection grinned.
"I'm what you were before they sealed you. Before you became soft."
Kael stepped forward, his voice low. "She's your unawakened self—what you were becoming before your execution. The Vexley bloodline was more than noble. It was cursed. Or chosen. Depends on who you ask."
Elira tried to look away, but the mirror refused to let her go. Her own voice echoed back from the glass.
"You were born to command death, Elira. To bind shadows and break fates. They feared you. That's why they betrayed you."
The mirror pulsed. Cracks began to form along its edges.
Kael moved instantly, gripping her arm. "Not now," he growled. "You're not ready."
But the mirror shattered anyway.
And from the shards rose something not even Kael could anticipate—a figure, draped in black mist, without a face but bearing her voice.
"You think rebirth frees you? No. You are mine, and I will return."
The figure lunged.
Kael raised a wall of fire between them, dragging Elira back, but the mist seeped around the edges.
"You gave up your past once," the figure whispered. "Try it again… and I'll make sure your present burns."
Elira screamed—
And woke up gasping on the library floor.
She was back. The books, the stone, the shelves—all real again.
Kael stood over her, sweat beading at his brow. He looked shaken for the first time since she met him.
"You saw it," he said.
She nodded.
"Then you understand. You were never meant to be just a pawn."
Her heart pounded. "What was that thing?"
He turned away.
"Something I thought I could protect you from. But I may have brought you too close… too fast."
Then he looked back at her—and for the first time, he didn't look like a villain.
He looked like a man terrified of the truth.
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 7: The Ghost in the Hall
That night, Elira wakes to the sound of footsteps outside her door—soft, slow, deliberate. But when she opens it, the hallway is empty… except for a single envelope left on the floor.
Inside it is a letter.No name. No sender. Just four chilling words scrawled in red ink:
"You were never Elira."