Chapter 17: A Visitor from the End
The stars still shimmered above when Lior walked Elaine back to her room. Their hands were entwined, and for once, the silence between them was warm—comfortable, even. She held on to him like an anchor, heart buoyant from their kiss, from the promise stitched quietly between their breaths.
No timeline glitches. No ex-boyfriends covered in enchanted dairy. Just her and Lior. Finally.
But as they turned the corner into her hallway, the air changed.
It was wrong. Dense. Still. Like the world had stopped breathing.
Elaine slowed. Her grip tightened.
Lior's hand slipped from hers as he reached instinctively for the dagger strapped to his belt. "Stay behind me."
"You're being dramatic," she whispered, though unease was already curling in her stomach.
"I'm being cautious."
Elaine crept behind him. Her bedroom door stood slightly ajar—just enough to show the sliver of a shadow dancing in the moonlight.
"I locked that," she murmured. "I always lock it."
Lior didn't answer. He nudged the door open with his boot.
No ambush. No assassin.
Just her room. Bed. Books. One shoe under the dresser. One under the curtain. Her cake fork on the windowsill.
And a letter on her pillow.
Lior crossed the room, scanned it, then motioned for Elaine to approach.
She stepped forward, fingers trembling. The parchment shimmered with faint silver runes. The ink was dark crimson—dried blood or something that wanted to look like it.
No name. Just a seal burned into wax: a phoenix folding inward, flames devouring it instead of rebirthing it.
Elaine's pulse quickened. "The Reversal Cult."
Lior's jaw tightened. "They were erased. You said so. After the last battle."
"In the original story," she whispered. "The story I thought I left behind."
Her stomach twisted.
She broke the seal.
> Dearest Timeline Walker,
You've stitched too many endings to beginnings. This was never your tale to reshape.
Come to the Glass Garden before the next new moon, or we'll unmake the choice you just made.
We remember.
— The Ones Who Refuse to End
Elaine stared at the letter, blood pounding in her ears.
"They know," she said. "They know I've rewritten things."
Lior looked over her shoulder. "They're from the story's bones, aren't they?"
"I thought they were background lore—just part of the ending. I didn't think they could survive the rewrite."
"They must've hidden in a timeline fragment. One you didn't burn clean."
Elaine sat on the edge of her bed, dizzy. "Then this isn't just a warning. It's a ripple."
Lior's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
She swallowed. "Before you found me in the observatory, I saw something. A memory. Or… a bleed-through. A younger me. And a boy I didn't recognize."
Lior stilled. "From your past life?"
She shook her head. "From a timeline that never existed. He called me 'Starcatcher.' Said I promised to find him again."
"The child's voice we heard up there," Lior said slowly. "You think that was him?"
Elaine looked at the letter again, fingers curling around its edge. "It wasn't a threat. It was a reminder. The story didn't forget him."
Lior's gaze turned sharp. "And now it's bringing him back."
A long pause. Then, almost reluctantly, he asked, "Do you still care about him?"
"I don't remember," she admitted, voice cracking. "But I feel it. Like a forgotten chord still vibrating under my skin."
Lior nodded. No jealousy. Just gravity.
"So," he said gently, "we find the Glass Garden. We uncover what you buried. And we make sure whatever's trying to break this timeline doesn't succeed."
Elaine leaned against him, exhausted. "You're not mad?"
"I'm terrified," he said honestly. "But I've already lost you once across time. I'm not doing it again."
Outside, the wind howled through the courtyard, carrying with it something soft and strange—a child's laughter, echoing from nowhere.
Elaine shivered.
The story was still writing itself.
But this time, the forgotten characters were fighting for a pen of their own.