I dress quickly, still watching Mira as she adjusts her corset, eyes downcast. We start walking again, side by side this time, not speaking. There’s too much left unsaid. But we’ll get there. One step at a time.
We keep a close eye on the map. It’s been hours of trudging through the thick, humid forest, and finally, the black ink starts spreading again, slowly at first, then all at once. Nearly the entire map is consumed. We’re close. As we near a quiet pond, the last patch turns black.
“We’re here,” Mira says, her voice barely above a whisper. She points ahead to a small house made of moss, vines, leaves, and mud, tucked beneath a curtain of vines and moss. It glows softly from within, the kind of light that feels alive.
“Stay behind me,” I murmur. “One rule with Veyra, only speak when spoken to. She will ask her questions. Never speak out of turn.” Mira nods, face solemn, and we step forward.
I hesitate before crossing the threshold of her land. It doesn’t feel right to just enter. She’d know we were here. Someone like Veyra always knows. So we wait. And then she appears, not from the house, but from behind us, silent as a shadow.
Her skin glows golden, warm and otherworldly. Her eyes shimmer a bright, unnatural green, brimming with ancientknowing. Her hair is twisted into thick locs woven with twigs, moss, vines, exotic flowers, and bits of bark. She wears no fabric, only carefully placed moss, her form wild and sacred. She floats like a fairy, her presence wrapping around us like thick morning fog.
“Welcome to my home,” she says, her voice like honey over stone.
“Thank you,” I reply, keeping it short and respectful. My hand stays on Mira’s wrist, gentle, but firm. A quiet promise that nothing will harm her. Veyra shifts her gaze to Mira.
“Mira,” she says softly, tasting the name on her tongue. “I’ve been waiting for you.” Her voice is calm, almost sweet, but it pulls a shiver straight down my spine.
Chapter fourteen
Mira
Sealed & Tied
All the blood drains from my face, my body frozen in pure shock. How does she know me? How do I respond without misspeaking, without offending someone so clearly not of this world? “You are just like me, child,” Veyra says, her voice soft and melodic, each word falling like dew. “Can you not feel it?” Kai’s grip tightens gently around my wrist. I anchor myself to that touch, steady, protective, familiar.
“I’m sorry, Veyra… I don’t know what you mean,” I say carefully, layering my voice with all the sincerity I can gather.
She tilts her head slightly. Her eyes glow. But her expression remains unreadable, still, serene, timeless. “You do not know? You truly do not know who you are?”
I shake my head, just slightly. A sting rises behind my eyes. “I don’t,” I whisper. “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.”
Veyra turns without a sound, gliding toward a nearby pond. A small turtle flails helplessly on its back. She kneels beside it, and with a single touch, graceful, instinctive, she rights it. The gesture ripples through the earth itself, subtle but undeniable. Then she turns back to me.
“Is that why you came to find me?” she asks, her voice like wind through the trees. “To remember what the world has made you forget?”
“I’ve been searching for guidance,” I admit, my voice barely above a whisper. “To understand who I am and why I’ve always been told I’m different. Special. But no one has ever told me why.” Veyra moves with a grace that doesn’t seem human, her bare feet touching silently on the moss-covered earth.
She kneels by the edge of the pond again, where the small turtle drifts away in calm water. With a gentle touch, she trails her fingers through the surface. The ripples shimmer around her, like the water itself acknowledges her presence. She rises, turning back to me with a gaze that cuts through skin and bone. Like she sees everything. Everything I’ve hidden, even from myself.
“Child,” she says. “You are a soul. A rare soul. A balance between what is and what was.” Her eyes flick to Kai, her tone soft and steady. “And this young man”—she gestures—“is a part of that soul.”
I glance up at him, my heart thrumming in my chest, eyes narrowing at Kai, at what I’m hearing. If she’s saying whatI think she is, then maybe, just maybe, these overwhelming feelings I’ve had all along weren’t just mine alone. Kai’s eyes meet mine, steady, warm. That familiar pull between us intensifies. The silence hums with meaning. The very blood in my veins starts to burn at his glance. His hazel eyes glow softly.
Anger surges through me. If Kai knew and said nothing, then he’s been playing me from the start, using me like a pawn in whatever twisted game he’s winning. “Did you know?”
He meets my stare. “No,” he says, the word rough, honest—or close enough to make me want to believe it. “I just found out at the same time as you,” Kai defends himself.
My eyes narrow. I don’t fully believe him. Veyra continues, her words falling like sacred truth. “You feel it, don’t you? The current between you both, it’s ancient. It’s powerful. The strongest energy I’ve felt in a pair in centuries.” We’renota pair. But now is hardly the time to say that.
Kai steps forward. “There is an undeniable pull toward Mira,” Kai says, his voice steady, reverent. “The connection I feel to her… it’s unlike anything I’ve ever known.”
Veyra tilts her head, gaze otherworldly, knowing. “She is the breath in your lungs? The hush of moonlight and the gleam of stars? She is the weight of gold and the warmth of flame?”
Her hand floats through the air in a graceful arc, as if painting the shape of my soul into existence. Kai’s fingers slip from my wrist and interlace with mine. The moment his skin touches mine, something ignites, a spark that rushes through my blood like fire and salt and sunlight. And the anger I felt is just gone.
“She’s everything I didn’t know I was missing and everything I don’t think I could survive losing,” he says without hesitation, his hazel eyes shining with something fierce. Like a vow. Like truth. He looks at me like I’m something rare and irreplaceable. All the feelings inside me make sense now. We’re bound by blood and prophecy. Something so much bigger than both of us.
The flutter in my chest is impossible to ignore. I’ve never wanted to kiss him more than in this moment. Veyra shifts her gaze to me. “And you?”
