The mill swallowed Aria whole.
The roar of the looms.The pounding of the presses.The thick, choking heat that clung to her skin.
Normally, the noise drowned everything, hunger, exhaustion, fear.
But today, it couldn't drown him.
Everywhere she turned, Kaelan's voice echoed in her mind.
"I worried about you last night."
No man had ever said something like that to her.Not gently.Not sincerely.
And definitely not a man like him.
Aria kept her head down, hands moving with practiced precision as she fed cotton through the rollers. But her pulse refused to settle. Every time she blinked, she saw the look on his face this morning—tired, restless, as if he had stayed up wrestling with something he couldn't name.
She understood the feeling all too well.
At midday, she slipped away to the courtyard behind the mill—nothing more than a narrow alley that smelled of damp stone and smoke, but at least it was quiet.
She pressed her back against the wall, closed her eyes, and tried to breathe.
She failed.
The dream from last night rose again—vivid, consuming.
Kael running to her through fire.Her voice calling his name like it was carved into her soul.
It made no sense.It frightened her.But what frightened her more—
was how right it felt.
She whispered into the empty alley,Why does it feel like I've lost you before I've even had you?
A foolish question.A dangerous one.
And yet the truth beat against her ribs like a second heartbeat.
***************************************************
While Aria fought the storm inside her, Kaelan was losing his footing entirely.
He tried to work, tried to read the safety reports, to draft proposals, to focus on the soot-stained reality of the mill's conditions, but every line blurred, every number swam.
Every thought drifted back to a girl with tired eyes and a stubborn, quiet strength.
Aria.
He leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling as frustration coiled in his chest.
This wasn't normal.This wasn't rational.This wasn't something he could explain away with exhaustion or coincidence.
Something was happening to him.
Something he couldn't control.
He rubbed a hand over his face. Why do I feel like I'm remembering instead of falling in love?
The question shook him more than the feeling did.
He wasn't a man prone to fancies.He wasn't superstitious.He didn't believe in fate or destiny or any of the things whispered in alleyways or pubs.
But that vision last night—
Her hand in his. Her voice saying Find me again. The warmth of a candlelit room that didn't exist in this lifetime.
He stood abruptly, pacing the room.
This is madness, he muttered.
But the moment he said it, his heart pushed back—hard, aching, certain.
Not madness.Memory.
No.
He couldn't think like that.He couldn't let himself drown in something he didn't understand.
And yet…
He found himself reaching for his coat.
Found himself walking out the door.
Found himself heading toward the mill long before the shift ended.
He told himself he was going to speak to the foreman.He told himself he was checking on the new safety concerns.He told himself anything and everything except the truth:
He needed to make sure Aria was all right.
The shift ended in a spill of weary bodies from the mill gates. Aria walked slower than usual, each step heavy with the weight of her thoughts.
She didn't see Kaelan standing across the street.
Not until she nearly collided with him.
Her breath caught violently.
Kaelan.
He stepped back immediately, hands raised slightly in apology, but his eyes, his eyes were a storm.
I'm sorry, he said quietly. I didn't mean to startle you.
You shouldn't be here, she whispered, glancing nervously around at the other workers.
They'll talk.
Let them, he said before he could stop himself.
Aria stiffened.
His jaw tightened.
He tried again, gentler. I don't care what they say.
Her chest tightened. I do.
The words were soft but devastating.
Kaelan swallowed hard, fighting the urge to close the distance she kept pushing between them.
Aria, he murmured, voice low, I can't seem to stop thinking-
Please. Her voice cracked, barely audible. Don't finish that.
He stopped.
Her eyes shone, not with tears, but with the unbearable weight of wanting something she didn't believe she could have.
I am trying, she whispered. I am trying so hard to keep my world from falling apart. Don't make it harder.
His heart clenched painfully.
She trembled, not visibly, but in the slight rise of her shoulders, the tightness in her breath.
Kaelan stepped aside, giving her space, even though it hurt.
She brushed past him.
But before she could get far, his voice reached her, soft, desperate, raw.
Aria, did you dream last night?
She stopped.
The air thinned between them.
Slowly, she turned her head.
Her eyes were wide. Frightened. Exposed.
How did you...? she whispered.
Kaelan took one slow step toward her.
Because, he said, voice hardly more than a breath,I think… I did too.
Aria's world tilted.
Her stomach dropped.
Her hands went cold.
For a long moment, neither of them moved.
The street, the workers, the fading daylight—everything fell away.
Only the pull remained.
Ancient. Inevitable. Awakening.