ERIS
The room was still when I woke again.
Not the kind of stillness that soothed, but the kind that pressed against the ribs, making every breath sound too loud, too human.
I didn't move at first. I lay there, staring at the ceiling, the soft ripple of frost still clinging to the corners of the room. The world felt muted, pale, as if the fire in me had burned itself hollow.
My mind ached. My body was quiet, too quiet.
I remembered everything.. the corridor, Caelen, the kiss, the flames, the smoke swallowing me whole. And then the voice. My voice, but not my own. The child's cry that had clawed its way through the fire.
The memory lingered like ash on my tongue.
That little girl… the one screaming, begging for mercy in the dark, the was me.
I knew it with a certainty that frightened me.
But I couldn't remember it.
Not from this life. Not from the first. Not even from the fragments I'd gathered from death.
