Kael looked different.
Still ethereal, still beautiful—but something in him seemed dulled. His wings, once burning with heavenly fire, now paled with feathers of ash and streaks of shadow. Cracks marred his skin, glowing faintly with inner light like that of fractured marble. But it was Kael's eyes—eyes that so vividly once judged—that halted Eli.
They looked tired.
And…alone.
Eli stepped forward instinctively, the earth cold on his bare feet. "You came back."
Kael's voice was soft. "I never really left."
Silence stretched between them underneath the graying sky, two souls intertwined by love that had broken them in different manner.
"I saw you," Eli finally said. "In the dream."
Kael nodded his head. "It wasn't a dream; it was a memory."
"I thought that the First Sin was something evil."
"It was," replied Kael. "But evil doesn't begin as darkness. It begins as grief. Rage. Love, denied."
A heaviness settled in Eli's chest. "Why show me now?"
Kael took a step closer. "Because the seal is breaking. And once he rises… he won't ask for your permission. He'll take your body. He'll wear your face. And Amon will die."
Eli blinked, his heart pounding. "Then help me stop it."
Kael paused. "There's only one way."
Eli had known already. "Merge with him."
"Control him," Kael said. "Don't run from the First Sin—become the version of yourself that remembers. That knows how to wield that power without losing love."
Eli stared. "You're asking me to risk everything."
Kael lowered his voice, creating an intimate space. "I'm asking you to finish what you began eons ago. The version of you that burned the heavens wasn't evil, Eli. He was in love. He was meant to save Amon. But he didn't get the chance."
"And what about now?"
Kael stepped closer, fingers almost brushing against Eli's. "Let me help you. This time… we do it together."
Amon woke alone.
It took him barely a heartbeat to know where Eli had gone.
The air had again shifted; he could feel the imbalance. The pull. And he knew Kael was back.
He found them near the treeline.
Kael was standing close-close, his hand hovering near Eli's heart. Eli wasn't pulling away.
Amon's voice sliced through the air like a knife. "Back off."
Kael didn't flinch. "You always said I came too late."
"You are."
"I'm not here to take him from you," Kael said. "I'm here to stop what you started."
Eli turned, eyes wide. "Amon—"
But Amon did not break his attention from Kael. "You made him a monster once. I won't let you do it again."
Kael sighed. "You still don't get it. He did that; for you. To bring you back."
Eli took a bold step in between them. "Enough!"
The air crackled with energy.
His mark flared.
Both men instinctively recoiled.
"I am not yours to pull apart," Eli said. "Not yours to weaponize. Not yours to protect to the point of control."
He glanced between the two of them. "This power inside of me is waking. The First Sin isn't an external threat. He is me. And if I don't find a way to coexist with him—he will take over."
Amon looked horrified. "You don't know what that will cost."
Kael's voice dropped low. "He does."
With a wrench in his stomach, Eli turned away. "And I will pay it. Because if I don't, we all burn."
That night, again at the river's edge, Eli sat.
Kael stayed near, a silent guardian, a ghost from another lifetime.
Amon stayed inside the cottage, unable to watch, unwilling to intervene.
Eli closed his eyes.
And released.
His inward journey was toward anything he could find—this time not in fear but with childish curiousity as he beckoned the voice that taunted him.
And the voice answered.
"You finally stopped running."
"I'm not afraid of you."
"You should be. I was born of your grief. Your love for Amon twisted by loss."
"I'm not that person anymore."
"No. But I am. And I remember well the way he looked when he died in my arms."
Eli winced.
"Let me help you. Let us finish what we began."
"I want to protect him."
"Then wear me like armor. And love him harder than heaven ever allowed."
Eli's eyes flew open.
Kael was watching him, tense.
"What did he say?" Kael asked.
Eli stood slowly, tall and steady now, his aura resonating with the pulse of two heartbeats rather than one.
"He wants to save Amon too."
Kael blinked. "Then the merge has begun."
Amon sat inside beside the fire, but he did not stand when Eli came in. His hands were clenched.
"You trust him," Amon said quietly.
"No," Eli stated with unwavering honesty. "But I believe him."
"And what about me?"
Eli knelt before him, taking his hands. "You are the reason I came back. Every time. Every life."
"Even the version of you that destroyed everything?"
"Especially him," Eli whispered. "Because even in the end… he did it for you."
Amon leaned in, forehead on forehead. "And if I lose you, I'll fall again—not from heaven—but from hope."
"You won't," Eli promised. "Because this time, I won't die for you. I'll live for you."