Chapter 45
The whisper lingered in the air long after the light died.
Elias felt it brush across his skin like frost,a voice that shouldn’t exist anymore, a presence that refused to die.
Amara was trembling in his arms. Her breath came in shallow, broken gasps, her pulse flickering like a candle fighting against the wind. He could feel her heart racing , not from life, but from the struggle inside her.
“Amara,” he whispered, clutching her tighter. “Look at me. Stay with me.”
Her eyes fluttered open, the gold fading now, leaving only the faint gray of exhaustion. “He’s… quieter,” she breathed. “But he’s not gone.”
Elias brushed a blood-streaked strand of hair from her face. “Then we’ll find a way to finish it. I swear to you.”
She gave a weak smile. “You don’t even know what you’re swearing to anymore.”
He looked around the ruin of the cabin, walls scorched, windows shattered, ash falling like snow. Every inch of it carried the echo of what they’d unleashed. The dagger lay a few feet away, humming faintly, its glow a sickly mix of silver and red.
Elias stood, still holding her hand. “We can’t stay here. If Kieran’s tethered to you, this place isn’t safe.”
“Nowhere is safe,” she murmured. “He’s in my head.”
“Then we’ll burn him out again.”
Her lips curved faintly. “And what if I burn with him?”
“Then I’ll burn too,” he said without hesitation.
Something flickered in her eyes , fear, love, disbelief. “You shouldn’t say things like that. The world might take you seriously.”
He tried to smile, but it broke halfway. “I already mean it.”
He helped her to her feet, steadying her when her knees buckled. The night outside was eerily still , the storm gone, leaving only the smell of wet earth and smoke. They stepped out into the clearing, the moonlight silvering the ruins behind them.
Amara shivered. “He’s weaker now. I can feel it. Like… like he’s holding on by threads.”
“That’s good,” Elias said, scanning the treeline. “Then we have a chance.”
“Do you think he’s afraid?” she asked quietly.
He looked at her. “He should be.”
She laughed softly, a sound too fragile for the night. “You always talk like hope is a weapon.”
“It’s the only one we’ve got left.”
They walked until the trees swallowed them. The forest whispered around them wet leaves, distant owls, the creak of branches ,but beneath it all, Elias could still sense it. A pulse. Not hers, not his. Something vast and patient, waiting for them to slip.
Hours passed before they found shelter , a derelict chapel on the edge of the woods, its stone walls half-collapsed, its altar buried in dust. Inside, candles still stood where someone long ago had left them. Elias struck a match.
The flame wavered, then steadied.
Amara sank to her knees beside the altar. Her hands trembled as she touched the cracked stone. “He used to bring me to places like this,” she whispered. “Temples. Sanctuaries. Said they were made for worship, but all he ever wanted was control.”
Elias knelt beside her. “You don’t belong to him anymore.”
Her eyes lifted to meet his. “Don’t I?”
He caught her chin gently. “Listen to me, you’ve got a heartbeat, a name, and a soul. None of that belongs to him.”
Something in her expression softened. She closed her eyes, leaning into his hand. For a long moment, there was only silence ,a rare, peaceful stillness.
Then the candle flames bent sideways.
A gust of cold air swept through the chapel, carrying a faint hiss that made Elias’s skin crawl. The shadows on the walls began to twist, bending into familiar shapes ,a face, a grin, a pair of gold eyes opening in the dark.
Amara’s breath hitched. “No…”
Elias stood, drawing his gun. “Show yourself!”
The shadow-face smiled.
“You think fire can cleanse me?” Kieran’s voice rippled through the air. “Fire only feeds the forge.”
The candles flared and went out.
In the darkness, Amara clutched Elias’s hand. “He’s changing,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “He’s learning how to survive without me.”
Elias tightened his grip. “Then we don’t let him.”
“Try,” Kieran murmured from the dark. “But remember , everything that burns leaves ash.”
The final candle flickered one last time and died, plunging them into silence.