Where were the people?
It felt like something I should know. I was standing in the centre of the pit—face to face with the man who haunted every shadow in my mind—and yet the stands were silent.
Empty.
Where did they go?
My shadows had risen in the chaos, building themselves into a wall—opaque, dense, impenetrable. They towered around us now like the walls of an arena within the arena. I couldn’t see Leo. Couldn’t hear Slade. But I knew they were there. They had to be.
The dark had swallowed everything.
Everything but him.
Vael stood across from me, wrapped in flickering electricity. It danced across his shoulders, down his arms, crackling at his fingertips like he was wearing the storm itself. His skin was pale—too pale—like moonlight stretched thin over something ancient and cold.
“You’ve gotten powerful,” he murmured, his voice rich and too familiar. It slithered down my spine like a memory I hadn’t wanted back.
“I know who you are,” I whispered. My breath shook. “I remember you.”
He tilted his head, amused. “Do you?”
I didn’t answer.
Because yes—I remembered.
Not everything. Not every wound or whisper. But I remembered the way the walls closed in when I cried. I remembered the weight of chains that never let me sleep. I remembered the feel of his hands too close, too invasive.
Vael took a step forward.
The lightning crackled louder now, lifting strands of his white hair as if the air itself feared him.
“I waited for you,” he said, almost tender. “Year after year, kingdom after kingdom. Do you know what it’s like to lose something sacred? Somethingyours?”
“You never owned me,” I spat.
He smiled like a man hearing a child lie. “You always said that. Even when you were bleeding.” His gaze raked me—soft, reverent, possessive. “But I knew better. Istilldo.”
My shadows twitched.
“Step back,” I warned, voice low and sharp.
He didn’t.
“I loved you,” he said. “Before you had a name. Before you had power. You weremine, Elira. Before the world knew what you were. Beforeyouknew.”
“Then why do I only remember pain?” I said.
That made him pause. Briefly. Almost thoughtfully.
“Because love... real love...” he murmured, taking another step, “is pain.”
The air around him split open with lightning.
I was blasted back.
The crack of lightning hit me square in the chest, and for a breathless second, all I knew was light and pain. My body shattered through stone, the wall exploding around me in a burst of rubble and ash.
My shadows surged on instinct, catching me mid-flight—slowing the impact—but not enough.
