The next week was chaos.
Not outside—no storms, no monsters walking the streets, no screaming in the sky.
The chaos lived in the cracks that only Lina and Eiren could feel.
One afternoon, as Lina walked home from school, the air shimmered beside her—like heat mirages warping the space near her shoulder.
Then the shimmer stretched…
and ripped.
A long, thin tear.
Thin as a paper cut in reality.
A cold wind gusted out of it, colder than anything a January night could make.
Lina froze, heart hammering, eyes wide on the shifting darkness. Something moved inside that rip—shadows within shadows, like hands trying to crawl toward her.
Before she could scream, arms wrapped around her from behind—strong, warm, pulling her sharply backward.
Eiren.
He held her tightly against his chest, turning her away from the tear.
"Don't look at it," he ordered, breath warm against her ear. His voice shook—not from fear for himself, but for her.
"What—what is that?" she whispered, trembling.
"A breach." His hold tightened. "My world pushing into yours. It's happening because of me. Because you saw me. Because… we got close."
The tear hissed, widening just a little more, a cold whisper leaking through:
"Waaaarden…"
Calling him. Dragging him.
Lina clutched his sleeve.
"Eiren, what does it want?"
His jaw clenched.
"Me. And now—anything I touched. Anyone."
Her blood ran cold.
Anyone.
Meaning her.
Eiren stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body.
The crack in the air pulsed again, this time with a flicker of red—anger, hunger, something ancient and starving.
"Stay behind me," he said. "Do not run."
She wanted to run.
She wanted to scream.
But she stayed.
Eiren raised his hand, and for the first time, Lina saw something she had only imagined:
A thin band of silver light curled around his wrist—alive, moving like moonlit water.
He wasn't human.
He truly wasn't.
The light shot from his palm toward the tear, weaving into it like stitches pulling a wound closed.
The tear shrieked—an unearthly sound—and snapped shut with a burst of icy wind.
Silence.
Lina fell to her knees, heart pounding uncontrollably.
Eiren knelt with her, hands gripping her shoulders.
"You see why I tried to leave?" he whispered, voice raw.
She nodded shakily.
But then she swallowed and looked up at him.
"Do you regret it?" she asked.
He exhaled slowly, as if she had asked the one question he feared most.
"No," he breathed. "But if I stay… both our worlds will tear themselves apart trying to reach us."
"Then what do we do?"
His eyes softened with a mixture of pain and longing.
"We fight," he said.
"For both worlds."
His hand hovered near her cheek—close enough to feel but not touch.
"And for each other."
Her breath caught.
"Eiren…"
He stood, offering her his hand.
Not as a Warden.
Not as a stranger.
But as someone choosing her, despite everything.
She took it.
And as their fingers intertwined, the world around them seemed to shiver—
as if it already knew their story was about to change everything.