The next morning, Kael helped clean the old storage under the cabin. Aira's grandmother had kept hundreds of dried herbs, broken amulets, and scrolls written in symbols only shamans could decipher.
But one thing caught Aira's eye—a book, leather-bound and locked.
It pulsed faintly with warmth when she touched it.
Her grandmother's diary.
And it opened to a marked page without her flipping it.
> "My granddaughter carries the fragments of a soul once torn in time. She will be hunted by the Echo Watchers. If she ever falls in love, the curse will wake again. The man she touches will remember. And it will kill him."
Aira's hands trembled.
Kael placed a steadying palm over hers. "We'll break it."
Her eyes searched his. "Even if it kills you?"
He smiled, something wild and broken in it. "Even then."