Aira didn't tell Kael about the vision.
She couldn't.
Not yet.
She kept the Memory Catcher hidden, buried beneath the floorboards again, though her fingers itched to touch it. Every time her hand grazed Kael's, guilt flared—because his touch no longer felt like the only truth.
At dusk, the sky bled crimson—the Blood Moon had risen.
Kael stood on the porch sharpening his blades. "We need to move deeper into the forest."
"Why?" she asked.
He didn't answer immediately. Instead, he tilted his head, like listening to something she couldn't hear.
"They're coming. The Wraiths of Broken Time. Shadows that remember you."
"Why do they follow me?" she whispered.
Kael's eyes softened. "Because you're the one who lived in all timelines. They want what you have: continuity."
Aira shivered.
Suddenly, the wind shifted—and the shadows around the trees parted like curtains.
A woman stepped through.
Draped in black robes with slivers of silver embroidery, she moved like liquid shadow. Her face was ageless, eyes painted with dark ash, and lips crimson like crushed berries. Her presence silenced the forest.
Kael swore under his breath. "Mirelle."
The woman smiled coldly. "Still dragging her into timelines you can't control, Kael?"
Aira stepped closer, heart pounding. "Who are you?"
Mirelle studied her with hawk-like precision. "I am the keeper of the Unwritten Echoes. And once, I held your hand too, little shaman."
Kael stepped between them. "She's not ready."
"She was born ready," Mirelle replied, circling them. "You're the one who's afraid. Because if she remembers what you did in the first cycle… she'll never choose you again."
Aira stiffened. "What did he do?"
Kael didn't answer.
Mirelle smiled again. "There is a way to break the Echo Curse. To stop the resets. But it comes at a price."
Aira swallowed. "What kind of price?"
Mirelle raised a silver-bladed dagger and let it hover over her wrist. "Blood. Bonding. And the intertwining of souls through a forbidden ritual—one where the Echo must bind with both lovers at once."
Kael flinched. "No."
Aira blinked. "Both?"
Mirelle nodded. "Kael and Sareth. Their timelines, your heart—must converge. Through blood… and through touch."
Understanding settled like fog in her lungs.
"You mean I have to… be with both of them? At the same time?"
Mirelle smirked. "It is not about pleasure. It is about tethering. You are the living anchor. Your soul holds both ends of the cord. Only through physical unison and emotional surrender can the Echo Curse collapse."
Kael looked pale. "You'd bind her to him? He nearly destroyed her!"
"And you," Mirelle hissed, "rewrote her."
Aira stepped back. Her head spun.
Kael lied.
Sareth remembered.
Both were dangerous.
And yet… she wanted the truth more than she feared it.
"What happens if I refuse?" she asked.
Mirelle tilted her head. "The resets will continue. And eventually, you'll lose your mind—pieces of every past self bleeding into your present. You'll forget who you are. Who you love."
Silence crackled in the air like fire waiting to burn.
Aira's voice was barely audible. "How long do I have to decide?"
"Until the next moon," Mirelle said. "But choose carefully. The ritual binds more than hearts. It binds fates. Once you do it, there's no turning back."
Then, like shadow consumed by wind, Mirelle vanished into the trees.
Aira turned to Kael.
"You said you'd tell me everything."
He nodded grimly.
"I will."
But in his eyes… she saw fear.
Not of the ritual.
But of the choice she might make.