"The soul never forgets what the body denies."
The world burned gold.
For a moment, I couldn't breathe. Every heartbeat pulsed with light, every breath seared through me like fire and air had become the same thing. My vision blurred, but through the haze, I could still see Elias motionless, his chest rising too slowly, too shallowly.
"Elias wake up," I whispered.
My voice shook. The light spread from my chest down my arms, coiling around my fingers like living flame. It wasn't hot not exactly but it hummed, alive and restless, like it had been waiting for this moment for centuries.
I didn't understand what was happening. I just knew I couldn't let him die.
Rain fell through the broken roof, hissing as it touched the shimmering air around me. It should have hurt. It didn't. The droplets turned to steam before they even reached my skin.
I pressed my glowing hands against Elias's chest. "Please"
Something inside me answered.
The light pulsed once hard and then poured out of me, sinking into him. The wound over his heart began to close, threads of gold stitching skin and shadow together.
The world around us blurred. The thunder faded. All I could see was him.
His breath returned with a violent gasp, his body arching off the ground. I stumbled back, chest heaving, as the glow began to fade from my hands.
He was alive.
Barely, but alive.
"Elias"
His eyes opened the same storm-gray, but now threaded with faint gold. He blinked, dazed, then focused on me. "You what did you do?"
"I I don't know," I said. "It just… happened."
He sat up slowly, wincing. The light that had healed him still flickered faintly under his skin, like it hadn't fully left him. "You shouldn't have been able to do that. That power it belongs to the fallen."
I frowned. "The fallen?"
"The ones who broke the divine law," he said softly. "You. Me. All of us who tried to change the order."
The words made my stomach twist. "Then why bring me back?"
"I didn't," Elias replied. "Something else did."
His tone sent a chill down my spine. I looked at him the man who had saved me more times than I could count, who now looked more afraid than I'd ever seen.
Before I could ask more, he suddenly grabbed my hand. His fingers were cold, trembling. "Aiden, listen to me. From now on, never use that power unless I tell you to. Every time you do, it tears the veil wider."
I hesitated. "The veil?"
"The barrier between your soul and what lies beyond it."
He stood, unsteady but determined, and reached into his coat. From an inside pocket, he pulled out a small pendant an old coin strung on a thin black cord. It gleamed faintly with the same light that had just come from my hands.
He placed it in my palm. "This will mask your presence for a while."
"What about you?"
He smirked faintly, though the corners of his mouth didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm already damned. You're not."
Before I could respond, he turned toward the broken door. The rain outside had quieted into a steady drizzle. Through it, the city lights glowed like a reflection of the stars.
"We need to move," he said. "They won't stop coming until they have you."
I nodded, still clutching the pendant. But as I followed him out into the rain, something about the world felt different.
The colors sharper. The air heavier. The pulse in my chest no longer felt human.
And somewhere deep inside, a voice whispered not in words, but in memory.
A promise once made cannot die.
I froze, my breath catching. The voice was mine, and yet not.
Elias turned back, noticing the change in my expression. "What is it?"
"I heard something."
He frowned. "What did it say?"
I hesitated. "That promises don't die."
Elias's expression darkened. "Then it's starting."
"Starting?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he stepped closer, his hand brushing the side of my face in a gesture that felt both protective and possessive. "Stay close to me, Aiden. Whatever happens next don't let go."
His eyes locked onto mine. For a moment, the noise of the city, the storm, even my own heartbeat vanished. There was only him and something ancient flickering between us.
Something that didn't belong to this lifetime.
We walked in silence through the slick streets, the rain soft but endless. Every drop glistened under the glow of passing cars, reflecting the city like fragments of a dream that wasn't mine.
Elias led the way, his black coat clinging to him, his stride purposeful despite the exhaustion in his shoulders. He looked human again, but I could still see traces of that light beneath his skin faint, like dying embers that refused to go out.
I followed a few steps behind, clutching the pendant he'd given me. It pulsed gently, syncing with my heartbeat. Every pulse reminded me of what I'd done of how it had felt when the fire inside me woke up.
It hadn't felt like power.
It had felt like remembering.
"Where are we going?" I finally asked.
He didn't look back. "Somewhere they won't find us."
"And who are they, exactly?"
"The Wardens," Elias said. "Servants of the celestial order. They guard the laws of life and death. When you crossed that line, you became their target."
I frowned. "But I didn't do anything. I didn't even know I was"
He stopped suddenly, turning to face me. His wet hair clung to his forehead, water dripping from his lashes. "That doesn't matter. The soul of Lady Ariselle broke a divine covenant when she defied her fate. They don't care whose body she's in now."
His voice was sharp, but beneath it I heard something else fear.
I stepped closer. "Then why are you helping me?"
He didn't answer right away. The rain filled the silence, falling harder now, turning the world to silver.
Finally, he said, "Because I swore to protect you. Even after death."
I wanted to say something anything but the words caught in my throat.
We reached an old warehouse near the river, half-collapsed and long forgotten by the city. Inside, the air smelled of rust and damp concrete. Elias flicked on a small lantern, filling the room with warm, trembling light.
He motioned for me to sit. I obeyed.
For a long time, neither of us spoke. I watched him peel off his coat, revealing a bloodstained shirt underneath. The wound I'd healed had left a faint golden scar across his chest like sunlight trapped beneath skin.
I looked away quickly, heart pounding for reasons that had nothing to do with fear.
"You shouldn't look at me like that," he said quietly.
I froze. "Like what?"
"Like I'm still the man you remember."
My throat went dry. "Maybe you are."
Elias's jaw tightened. "No. That man died with you centuries ago."
He turned away, busying himself with cleaning the floor near the lantern. But his voice softened after a moment. "You shouldn't confuse fate with love, Aiden."
"I'm not."
"Yes, you are." He faced me again, eyes burning. "You think what you feel now is yours. It's not. It's hers. Every time your power wakes, her emotions bleed into yours. That's how reincarnation works."
I wanted to deny it. I wanted to say that what I felt when he looked at me wasn't borrowed from another life that it was real, mine. But deep down, I wasn't sure.
My hands trembled. "Then what do I do?"
He stepped closer, crouching so our eyes met. "You survive. And you learn control before the Wardens find you again."
He reached out, brushing his thumb lightly across my jaw a touch so gentle it hurt. "And until then you stay with me."
The air between us thickened, heavy with something unspoken. I could smell the rain on his skin, the faint trace of iron and smoke.
He leaned closer not enough to touch, but close enough that I could feel the warmth of his breath.
"Tell me," he murmured, "when you used that power, did you feel fear?"
"No." My voice was barely a whisper. "I felt like I'd been waiting."
A muscle in his jaw twitched. "Then the flame's already chosen you."
"What does that mean?"
"That it won't stop until it burns everything you love."
Before I could ask, a sudden crash echoed from above. The ceiling shuddered, dust falling in thin streams.
Elias stood instantly, eyes scanning the shadows. "They've found us."
"How?"
"The pendant's fading. You used too much energy earlier."
I glanced at the small coin around my neck its light dimming with every pulse.
He grabbed my arm. "We run. Now."
We sprinted toward the back door, rain roaring louder as it poured through the cracks in the roof. Lightning flashed, illuminating shapes moving outside not human shapes, but tall, shimmering forms that bent the air around them.
The Wardens.
Elias shoved me through a side exit, slamming it shut behind us. The street outside was a blur of rain and shadow. He pushed me toward an alley. "Go! I'll hold them off!"
I grabbed his sleeve, panicked. "No! Not again!"
His gaze softened for just a second long enough for me to see everything he wasn't saying. "You have to live, Aiden. It's the only way this cycle ends."
Then he turned, light flaring around him as the first Warden burst through the wall in a shower of sparks.
"Elias!" I shouted, but the sound drowned in thunder.
The last thing I saw was his silhouette standing against the storm, wings of fire unfurling behind him.
Then the world exploded in light.