CHAPTER LXIX
"The Hardest Goodbye"
The full moon had finally taken its place in the night sky — high, glowing, and watching over us like an ancient guardian. Its silver light bathed everything in an otherworldly glow as if blessing the moment we had all been waiting for.
And then… it happened.
Lying on the hospital bed, her face glistening with sweat and effort, the woman let out one final cry — and just like that, she brought Cael into the world.
My Cael.
The baby's first wail cut through the air like a sacred melody, raw and beautiful. And the moment I heard it, my breath hitched. Everything inside me paused — my heartbeat, my thoughts, even time itself. The weight of lifetimes, of endless searching and aching, lifted all at once. The years of longing dissolved in that single sound.
She was here.
She had returned to us.
Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring the scene before me. My legs trembled, barely able to hold me up. After all this time, after everything… my Cael was truly here.
The doctors, calm and professional, passed the newborn to a nurse and said gently, "Take her. Clean her up and bring her back quickly."
The nurse nodded and walked away with Cael cradled in her arms, oblivious to the miracle she carried.
But we weren't.
The moment the nurse turned a corner, we followed. Olivia, Ivory, and I surrounded her silently. With a subtle flick of our fingers and whispered incantations, we froze her in time. The world around her paused, and the nurse stilled like a statue, still holding Cael in her hands.
I stepped forward, my heart hammering in my chest. Carefully, I reached out and took Cael into my arms.
And the instant her tiny body touched mine… she smiled.
Her little lips curved upward in a way that made my soul shatter and mend all at once. Her eyes — those familiar eyes — blinked up at me with innocence and recognition. Nothing had changed. Not her smile. Not her eyes. Not her soul.
She was just… smaller now. A baby. Fragile, new, and yet ancient in the way only reborn souls can be.
Flash shifted into his true form, and Chiko followed. Flash looked at Cael and then at me, his voice soft with wonder. "Don't you think… Cel and Cael look like mother and daughter now?"
I shot him a look through tears. "Flash, please. Not now."
But he smiled gently and reached out to hold Cael's tiny hand. "We missed you, Cael. So much."
And I could see it — in the way her fingers curled around his. She remembered. Somehow, somewhere inside, she remembered.
Then, Ethan appeared, his expression no longer stoic but heavy with a bittersweet truth.
He looked at me and said quietly, "We can't take her with us."
"What?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
"If we do," he continued, "she'll grow up believing you're her mother. And that… that's not the life the stars chose for her. Not yet."
I shook my head slowly, clutching Cael tighter. "But I just got her back…"
Ethan stepped closer. "Celeste, listen to me. You've seen her. You've held her. That was your miracle. But now, she must live this life. As a human. As their child. She has a path in this world — one she must walk without our interference. One day, she'll return to us. But not now."
My chest ached.
It wasn't fair.
I had waited lifetimes.
I had crossed realms.
I had burned and broken and rebuilt myself — all to find her.
And now, I had to let her go?
But Ethan's voice was calm and resolute. "You'll meet her again. Twenty-five years from now. On the night the moon rises like this again. That's when her soul will remember everything. That's when she'll find her way back to you. But for now, this isn't goodbye… it's just a pause."
I looked down at Cael one last time. Her fingers curled around mine. Her tiny chest rose and fell against me. Her presence felt like the universe had come full circle.
How was I supposed to let go?
But I knew Ethan was right.
And so, with trembling hands and a heart full of pain, I stepped back toward the frozen nurse. Gently, lovingly, I placed Cael back into her arms.
My lips brushed her forehead.
"I love you," I whispered. "Always. Across lifetimes."
And then I stepped away.
As Ethan lifted the time spell, the nurse blinked and walked off as if nothing had happened.
But everything had changed.
Cael was born again.
And I… I had said the hardest goodbye of my life.
But deep down, I also knew this wasn't the end.
It was only the beginning.
A love like ours can't be ended by time, or fate, or even death.
We were written in the stars.
And one day, the stars would bring her back to me again.
"Watching Her From Afar"
Though I had been separated from Cael, not a single day passed without her in my thoughts. I may not have been by her side physically, but through her magical mirror — the one only connected by the bond of blood and soul — I watched her every day, every moment.
From the moment I placed her back into the nurse's arms, I had promised myself one thing — I would never miss a single heartbeat of her life again.
Ivory and Olivia stayed with me, always. The three of us formed a quiet circle around that mirror, day after day, each of us drawn into the unfolding story of Cael's new life. We laughed with her, cried when she stumbled, and celebrated every little milestone as though we were right there with her.
Flash and Chiko had been left near her, living like protectors in plain sight — guardians cloaked in fate. They finally got the chance to witness her childhood again, something we never thought we'd be given.
And Rira… she never left me. Through all my silent ache and suppressed joy, she stood by me — a quiet constant in a life of storms.
Then, one quiet evening, as the moonlight spilled through our window and touched the mirror's surface, I heard it — her first word.
She was only eight months old. Her voice was soft, nearly a whisper, but clear.
"Cel."
I froze.
For a heartbeat, I thought I had imagined it. But no… I had heard it. She didn't say mama or dada — she said Cel.
Tears spilled down my cheeks before I even realized it. My name. She had called my name.
It was as if her soul remembered, even if her mind did not.
As months turned to years, Cael grew stronger, brighter — more radiant than ever. At one year old, she took her first steps. I remember that day vividly — Olivia gasping, Ivory clapping, and me… unable to speak, my hand covering my mouth as I tried to contain the flood of emotions.
We began a ritual — sitting around the mirror every evening, each from a different side, surrounding it like we used to surround her. She would dance, laugh, stumble, and talk — and we'd watch like enchanted spectators of a life we could not touch, but loved more deeply than anything else in this world.
Time passed.
She turned twelve.
And with her twelfth birthday came a storm I hadn't prepared for — Cael liked someone.
A girl.
A sweet girl, innocent in every way. But I… I couldn't bear it.
I knew I should have been happy for her. That I should've smiled and embraced her heart no matter whom it chose. But jealousy — wild and primal — flared in my chest. Not because I was against her love… but because I wanted all of her still. I wasn't ready to share her with the world.
"Flash," I had said, almost pleading, "Keep her away from that girl. Please."
He didn't argue. He simply nodded. He understood — because he had watched me crumble and rebuild for Cael more than once.
And now… now she was no longer a child.
She was a young woman.
A mirror image of her past self — the same shining eyes, the same smile that lit up everything around her. The same lips that once whispered promises beneath the fairy moon. The same silken hair… though shorter now, but still kissed by sunlight.
She was my Cael. In every lifetime. In every form.
And now… now the countdown had begun.
Just one week remained.
One week until the moon would once again rise full and bright, opening the gateway between this world and the next.
One week until I would finally hold her again — not as a stranger, not as a ghost watching from the shadows — but as Celeste.
Her Celeste.
Her love.
Her fate.
And though my hands trembled with anticipation and fear… my heart whispered only one truth:
"Just a little longer, Cael. I'm coming. And this time, nothing in the world will ever take you away from me again."
To be continued….