🎵 Music Suggestion:
"Way Down We Go" by KALEO
(Let it echo like a funeral dirge for innocence—and the beginning of Kyrell's return.)
---
He didn't knock.
He didn't need to.
The doors to Lucian's manor—ancient magic wood bound in moonstone and fire locks—unlatched without command. Wind followed the figure inside. Wind that didn't belong to this realm.
Kyrell stepped in with ash on his shoulders and thunder in his wake.
His boots dragged blood. Not his own.
The guards at the edge of the hall had knelt before they even realized they were kneeling, some choking on invisible air, others weeping without reason. The bond that once tethered Lucian's will to Kyrell had been severed by spellcraft and betrayal—but something older had grown in its place. Not a bond. A storm.
Lucian stood at the top of the stairway, cloak half-draped, one boot unlaced as though he'd just risen from war or sleep. His eyes darkened, but he did not descend.
Kyrell looked up.
And smiled.
"You're not surprised to see me," he said.
Lucian exhaled like he'd been holding that breath since the night Kyrell vanished. "No," he replied. "Only surprised it took you this long."
Kyrell stepped into the amber light of the hall. The bruises from his captivity were gone. His eyes burned not just red—but gold ringed with black. Something had awakened in him. Something divine. Or monstrous.
"I had to bury something," Kyrell said softly.
Lucian's voice was steel. "What?"
"My fear."
A beat of silence passed. Somewhere in the manor, a vase cracked with no hand to touch it. Outside, clouds churned above the estate like the sky knew what had returned.
Lucian moved. One slow step down the stairs, then another. And another. Until he stood before the boy—no, the man—he had once saved from the forest. The man who now looked like he had returned from death itself.
"What did they do to you?" Lucian whispered.
Kyrell's jaw tensed. "They showed me who I was. They tried to chain me to it."
"And did you let them?"
Kyrell's smile was sharp and aching. "I broke every chain. I even burned the mirror they held to my face."
Lucian stared into him, searching for remnants of the fragile boy he once knew. There were shadows of that boy still—but they were carved beneath layers of new skin. And pain.
Kyrell leaned closer. "But I didn't come back just to show you that I've changed."
Lucian tilted his head slightly. "Then why?"
"I came back because I remembered everything you did to keep me alive. Everything you sacrificed to protect me." His voice cracked, just slightly. "And because I still remember how you looked the moment I forgot your name."
Lucian closed his eyes, just once.
When he opened them, the glow behind them was unbearable.
Their lips didn't meet yet, but the space between them ached like it had waited for centuries.
"I don't care what you are," Lucian said. "Not anymore. I only care about what you'll become now that you're here. And who you'll become it with."
Kyrell's hands trembled. Not from fear. From something older—something softer.
"I want to become it with you."
And this time, Lucian didn't hesitate.
He stepped forward. Pressed his palm to Kyrell's cheek. And with a breath that seemed to unravel a thousand years of ache, their lips met.
It wasn't hungry. It wasn't frantic.
It was slow, trembling, reverent.
Like an old wound finally closing.
The wind outside stilled.
Somewhere, something ancient stirred.
But for now, there was only this: two broken gods, kissing in the ruins of their past.
---