Alex's POV
She sleeps peacefully, never knowing that i lie beside her, that she never truly slept alone.
I've been with her every night. Watching. Waiting. Wanting.
Ever since her soul returned to this village the place where we once loved, and where I once died. Ever since fate brought her back in a body that no longer remembers, with a name that isn't mine to speak freely.
She's Katherine now.
But to me, she'll always be Lumine.
That name still lives in the marrow of her bones, even if she doesn't know why her chest aches when she passes the edge of the cursed forest.
Even if she can't explain the tears that shine under her eyes when she wakes up in terror, or the way her heart flutters when moonlight falls just so across her pillow.
I lie beside her every night. Not touching. Never touching. Just close enough to hear her heartbeat.
There's no point in reaching for her, she wouldn't feel it.
But still, I stay. To remember what it felt like to have a heart of my own.
And when she stirs in her sleep and the veil thins, I whisper her name into the dark:
"Lumine... Lumine... remember me."
She never does.
But this morning was different.
Light spilled through the lace curtain, warming her skin, brushing against her red curls like it had a right to touch her. Her eyes were dimmer than usual. A faint shadow beneath them. Her movements slower, like she was waking from a dream stitched in sorrow.
She sat up slowly, blinking into the light. I hovered nearby nothing but a shimmer in the air.
She always looks most beautiful in the morning. Even with that ache in her eyes.
She didn't know it, but I've watched her like this for lifetimes. And still, every time she opens her eyes this version of her I forget how not to ache.
Katherine.
No… Lumine.
My heart called her by the name the universe buried deep inside her soul.
Her lips parted, like she wanted to speak. Maybe she heard me this time. Maybe my voice slipped through while she slept.
Maybe my echo reached through her bones, through her blood.
Yet nothing came out.
Just silence.
She thinks it's just bad dreams.
But it's me.
It's always been me.
The forest lies just beyond her cottage. The villagers call it cursed. Haunted. They whisper stories of ghost-lovers and bleeding ruins. No one dares enter. They say something ancient sleeps there, and if you wake it, it remembers.
They're right to fear it.
It's where the war stole her from me. Where our house, garden, and peaceful life turned to ashes, and all the promises I made to protect her. Shattered.
She's never stepped foot in it. Not yet.
But it calls to her. Just as I do.
She's off the bed finally stepping into her garden. A ritual, quiet and sacred. The air shifts when she enters it. Roses, both crimson and blush, lean toward her as if in prayer. Their petals unfurl like dreams at dawn. Dew clings to them like weeping pearls, their scent thick and bittersweet like memories that never died.
Even the wind holds still for her.
She wore a flowing Victorian gown today, pale lilac with ivory lace along the cuffs and bodice. The fabric cinched gently at the waist, its skirt spilling like soft mist across the grass. Her curls tumbled down her back, unpinned and wild, as if the night had kissed them and refused to let go.
She cradled a porcelain cup of coffee, its steam curling around her like ghost-breath. She sat in her favorite chair, unaware that I hovered only feet away.
Her cat, Luna, prowled at her feet. And like clockwork, Luna sensed me.
She always does.
The little tabby's eyes fixed on me. She crouched, then leapt, chasing a shimmer between rose petals like a child chasing sunlight.
Katherine laughed.
Damn, that sound.
"I swear, Luna… what are you chasing now? The wind? A butterfly? Or a ghost?"
She joked, not knowing how close she was to the truth.
I knelt beside the cat and let my hand pass through her fur. A ripple of warmth and static. She purred, eyes glowing.
"Hello, little one," I murmured.
"How I envy you. You can touch her. All I do is watch."
That small connection, it was all I had. The veil keeps me hidden. But now and then, the smallest touch slips through.
Katherine shivered.
The trees rustled, not because of me, but because the forest watches her too. That place… it's alive in ways she doesn't understand yet. It waits for her. Hungers for her.
Just like I do.
"Lumine…"
This time the name passed through the air like wind and memory.
Her breath caught. I saw her eyes widen. She felt something.
She always does.
Just not enough.
She looked around slowly, not frightened, only puzzled. As if something brushed against her shoulder and vanished before she could turn.
One day, she'll remember everything.
One day, she'll see me.
And when she does... I will not let her go again.
But god, sometimes it hurts.
The waiting.
The silence.
The watching.
I scream in silence every night when she cries from dreams she can't explain. I want to hold her. I want to tear the sky open with my bare hands and scream her name until the stars listen. I want this veil gone.
I've begged. I've cursed. I've tried to forget.
But I can't.
She's in every corner of me. In every shard of what I am. In every lifetime, I find her, and lose her.
Not this time.
"You're coming back to me," I whispered, though she couldn't hear it yet.
"I'll wait through every lifetime if I have to.
And though you can't see me, you'll feel me soon."
"This long winter will end.
Because love like this doesn't die.
It lingers. It waits."
And so do I.