POV: Lyra
The first thing I felt was heat.
Not fire. Not pain.
But a warmth that wrapped around me like smoke — thick, ancient, and alive.
Then came the silence.
Not peaceful silence.
The kind that waits.
When I opened my eyes, I wasn't in my room.
I wasn't in the castle.
I wasn't even in this life anymore.
I stood barefoot on cracked black stone, the sky above me burning gold and crimson.
A ruined temple loomed ahead — half ash, half memory — and in the center, a throne of flame pulsed like a heartbeat.
And sitting on it… was me.
She wore the same face. Same eyes.
But her gaze was older. Her mouth set in tragedy.
"You finally came," she said. Her voice was a whisper and a roar.
"Who are you?" I asked, though I already knew.
She stood, stepping down from the throne barefoot, her long, crimson cloak dragging behind her like molten lava.
"I'm the part of you that remembers," she said. "The part that burned. The part that begged to forget."
I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe.
"You're Emberlyn."
She smiled, but there was no joy in it. "I was. Now… I'm what's left when the fire dies and the soul survives."
I looked down at my hands. They were glowing — not with magic, but with something older. The bond. The past. The truth.
"This isn't just a memory," I whispered.
"No," Emberlyn said softly. "This is the warning."
Then she walked up to me — slowly, carefully — and placed her hand over my heart.
And suddenly, I saw it.
The fire. The war.
Kairo.
But not this Kairo.
He was darker. His hair longer. His eyes brighter — like embers ready to consume.
He had a crown on his head and blood on his hands.
And in that life, I had loved him so deeply it killed me.
"I chose him," Emberlyn whispered beside me. "Over my people. Over the world. And when the time came… I let him destroy everything."
Tears stung my eyes. "Then why did I come back?"
"Because this time," she said, backing away into the flames, "you have a chance to stop it."
"But what if I don't want to?" I asked, trembling. "What if I still love him?"
She paused at the edge of the fire. "Then the world burns again."
Then she stepped into the flames — and vanished.
And the world around me shattered like glass.