There was no sky. Only red light and the faint scent of ash. I stood in a forest that was not a forest at all, blackened trees rising like the ribs of something ancient and dead. The air shimmered with heat though I felt no warmth. Each breath burned, and every step I took left a faint trail of ash behind me.
Somewhere far away, the sea roared, but it was not water I heard. It was blood, thick and slow, moving through the veins of the earth. The sound of the Veil breathing.
I turned, but there was no path back. Only fog, pulsing faintly with silver light. Then I heard it, a voice I had come to know too well.
"Ava."
He stood at the edge of the clearing, barefoot among the ashes.
Elijah.
His hair was dark as night, his eyes molten gold. He looked impossibly human, heartbreak and beauty shaped into a single form. His presence filled the world like gravity, pulling everything toward him.
"This is not real," I whispered.
He smiled faintly. "Everything you see is real somewhere."
"What is this place?"
"The memory of the Veil," he said. "It is where all who are bound to it come when the world begins to fracture. A place between breath and death."
I looked around. The trees bled from their roots, sap dark and thick. "Why am I here?"
"Because you called me," Elijah said. "And because you remember."
"I do not remember anything."
He stepped closer, and the air trembled. "Do you not? Tell me, does the name Alara mean nothing to you?"
The word struck deep, cutting through my chest like a blade. For a moment, I saw her, myself, and not myself, a woman with silver eyes and blood on her hands, standing beside a man made of shadow. The world burned around them, and still they touched, their palms pressed together, their marks blazing as one.
Elijah reached for me, his fingers brushing my wrist. His touch was cold but gentle. "You were her once," he whispered. "The light that sealed me away. The heart that broke to save them all."
The forest quaked. Fire licked at the edges of the clearing, climbing the dead trunks. "You loved her," I said.
"I still do."
I stepped back. "You are not him. You are only what remains."
His eyes darkened. "And what remains of you?"
The air rippled, and suddenly he was closer, his face inches from mine. "You carry my light now," he said. "You dream of me because I am written into your blood. You cannot unmake what the Veil made."
I tried to pull away, but the world tilted. My mark burned, white-hot beneath my skin. I saw flashes, Casimir's face, his eyes, his hands gripping mine. Elijah's voice layered over his, the same timbre, the same tone. Their shapes blurred, one becoming the other until I could not tell them apart.
"You see?" Elijah murmured. "He carries my shadow. I carry your heart. The Veil does not create new stories… it repeats them."
The flames rose higher, surrounding us. Smoke filled my lungs. I heard Casimir's voice cut through the fire. "You are mine to protect, not to possess."
Elijah's expression twisted. "You cannot protect her from me. I am in every breath she takes."
The fire surged, swallowing the sky. I screamed, reaching for the light, for anything that felt like air. And then the world broke apart.
---
I woke to the sound of my name. My chest heaved, the sheets tangled around me. The room was dim, lit only by the flicker of a single candle. Casimir sat beside the bed, his hand gripping mine. His eyes burned gold in the dark.
"You were dreaming," he said.
I tried to speak, but my throat was raw. "It was not a dream."
His hand tightened. "Then what did you see?"
I hesitated. "Him."
Casimir's face went still. The muscles in his jaw clenched. "He spoke to you."
I nodded. "He called me Alara."
He looked away, the gold in his eyes dimming. "Then he knows."
"The prophecy?" I asked.
"No. The truth."
The air between us thickened. I could still feel the echo of Elijah's touch, the cold imprint on my wrist where he had held me. Casimir's gaze followed it. Without a word, he lifted my hand and brushed his thumb over the faint silver mark that remained.
"You are freezing," he said softly.
"I do not think it is the cold."
He leaned closer, his breath brushing my cheek. "What did he want?"
"To remind me of what I once was."
His eyes searched mine. "And what is that?"
I swallowed hard. "The woman who bound him."
Silence filled the room, broken only by the sound of the sea outside. I could feel his heartbeat through our joined hands, fast and uneven. When I tried to pull away, he didn't let go.
"You should not have come into my dreams," I whispered.
He smiled faintly. "You think I have that kind of power?"
I looked up at him, my pulse unsteady. "Then why do you feel like the only real thing left in them?"
Something in his expression broke. He leaned in, his forehead resting against mine. The warmth of him chased the chill from my skin. "Because I am bound to you," he said quietly. "And I would burn the Veil itself before I let it take you."
His lips brushed mine, soft at first, hesitant. Then the bond between us flared, a rush of warmth flooding through my veins. The air around us shimmered, the candle flame bending toward us as if drawn to the heat. When we finally pulled apart, my mark glowed faintly through the thin fabric of my dress.
He looked at it, his eyes dark with something that was not just desire. "It reacts to me," he murmured.
"It reacts to us," I said.
Before he could answer, the door opened. Nicholas stepped in, his face grim. "The King," he said. "The sickness has reached the capital."
Casimir turned, his expression hardening. "How long?"
"Since dawn," Nicholas said. "The healers cannot stop it. The blood runs black."
Casimir nodded once, then looked back at me. "He touched your mind. That is how he spreads."
I stared at him. "You think I am carrying this?"
"I think he is using you," Casimir said. "Through the bond. Through me."
The words hit like a blade. "Then what am I to you now?"
He hesitated. "Everything the Veil will use to destroy me."
Nicholas shifted, uneasy. "Then you must sever it."
Casimir's gaze stayed on mine. "No. If I sever it, she dies."
Nicholas exhaled, frustrated. "Then we are running out of time."
---
Casimir
Night came fast, dragging the storm with it. I stood outside beneath the eaves, the rain cold against my skin. The scent of smoke clung to me though no fire burned. The sea stretched black and endless before me. I could feel him now, the echo of Elijah in the back of my mind, a shadow pressed against my thoughts.
"If love made him a monster," I whispered, "then let it make me one too."
The water below stirred. For a heartbeat, two reflections stared back at me, one gold, one black. The wind carried a single word across the cliffs.
Soon.
The dream had ended, but the fire it left behind had only just begun.