Chapter 1
The wind howled through the misty valley, brushing cold against my skin. Tonight felt different. The silence wasn't peaceful—it was heavy, like the air before a storm. And deep inside me, something stirred… something ancient.
"That dream again…" I whispered, wiping the sweat from my forehead. The same scene every night: the sky in flames, the ground turning to ash… and her, standing in the center of it all. Her eyes… like they belonged to someone I had known a thousand years ago.
Morning came too soon.
I threw on my uniform and headed to school like any normal teenager would. But I wasn't normal. I was a Heartbearer—a guardian of an ancient power that runs deeper than blood. Each Heartbearer is bound to another by fate, and each carries a gift... or a curse.
That's when she walked into class.
Her name was Rina. Quiet, graceful, eyes full of something I couldn't quite place. But when she stepped through the door, something inside me cracked.
My heart skipped—no, it froze.
Her eyes… they were exactly like the girl from my dreams. Burning, broken, beautiful.
As she walked past my desk, time seemed to slow. And then, in a voice only I could hear, she whispered:
"You don't remember me, do you?"
My breath caught. My name is Kael, and this… this is the story of how the world ended once—
and how love might be the only thing strong enough to stop it from ending again.