Chapter 4: Blades & Blushes
Love has a rhythm. So does war.
---
"Sketches of a Heart"
She dreamt of him again.
Not the demon.
Not the flame.
Just the boy beneath it all.
The boy who looked up at the stars like he was daring them to fall.
Who laughed like he didn't know sorrow had his name on a list.
Who burned—and still tried to be soft.
Rael.
No, Zayn.
No… both.
She couldn't explain what he was to her—not yet.
But he haunted her in quiet ways.
In sketches.
In sword swings.
In the space between blinks.
mira sat cross-legged in her room, sword beside her, fingers smudged with charcoal. Her sketchbook rested on her lap—open to the page she swore she wouldn't draw again.
But she did.
Him.
His hair, wild and white like the sky just before lightning.
His smile—not smug, just confused and warm, like he didn't know how dangerous he looked.
She'd drawn him sleeping.
Then laughing.
Then… bleeding.
"Idiot," she whispered, pressing her thumb over the charcoal version of his mouth. "Why do you keep showing up?"
She tried to flip the page.
But her fingers trembled.
Outside her window, a small flame bloomed in the wind—just like the one he left behind last time.
And her chest… thumped once. Then twice. Then—
"mira!" Nia's voice called from outside. "Training time!"
"Coming!"
But her heart didn't move with her.
It stayed with the boy made of flame.
Morning: "Burnt Feelings & Broken Ribs"
"Hit me harder," she said.
"I literally can't feel my ribs," I groaned.
"Then you're slacking."
Welcome to training with mira—where flirting gets you kicked, and compliments are delivered via bruises.
She had me pinned to the ground again, sword at my throat, one knee square on my chest.
Which, under different circumstances, would be a fantasy.
Now?
Mostly just terrifying and slightly arousing.
"You're still predictable," she said flatly.
"You just stabbed me."
"Exactly."
She stood, yanked me up with one arm, and dusted herself off like she hadn't just drop-kicked me across the courtyard. Her hair was tied up. Her sleeves were rolled. Her arms were sculpted like divine weapons—and here I was, trying not to stare at the scar on her collarbone like it whispered secrets.
"Focus, Rael," Lyra said from the shadows. "You're not here to flirt."
"I wasn't!" I coughed.
"You were," mira muttered, cheeks pink.
---
Meanwhile, Kai lounged on a rock nearby, eating a fruit that looked like it was glowing.
"At this point," he said with a smirk, "you two just need to kiss and set the world on fire."
"We're training," mira growled.
"So is your heart," Nia sang from a tree. "It's doing pushups when he smiles~"
mira aimed a rock at her sister's head. Nia vanished into the leaves like a demon squirrel.
---
"Let's go again," mira said, turning to me. "And this time... use your flames."
I hesitated. My fire had been wild lately—tied to my emotions, flickering with memories I didn't understand.
But I nodded.
"Alright. No holding back."
She charged. I dodged. We circled. Steel danced. Flame flickered.
It felt less like training—and more like a rhythm.
Clash. Step. Twist. Laugh. Dodge.
I parried her strike, ducked under, and instinctively caught her waist mid-spin. We froze.
Her body was close. Too close.
"You smell like embers," she said.
"You smell like…" I blinked. "...Victory?"
Silence.
Then....
Her knee slammed into my side and she pinned me to the ground again.
"Don't get cocky, demon."
"Too late."
---
The Rift: "Voices in the Void"
Then—everything shifted.
The world blurred.
The sky cracked. The grass bled upward.
I blinked—and I was no longer in the courtyard.
I was inside... my own mind.
---
A void. A mirror. A heartbeat that wasn't mine.
And in front of me—
Zayn.
My old self.
Seventeen. Bruised. Burned. Dressed in a charred orphan's hoodie and jeans.
He looked at me like I was a dream.
"So... you're what I became," he said.
"You're what I was," I whispered.
He smiled. Sadly.
"She loves you, y'know."
"No, she".....
"She does," he interrupted. "Same way I loved Jayden. With everything. Quietly. Stupidly."
"Why are you showing up now?"
"Because something's waking up. And it remembers the deal made before we were born."
"What deal?"
But he didn't answer.
I said what deal .....
Still didn't answer
The mirror behind him cracked.
His body began to fade.
"You'll remember soon."
"Zayn, wait!" (feels weird calling out to myself )
Wait!
---
Return: "Hands, Hearts, and Half-Confessions"
I woke up gasping.
Still in the courtyard.
mira was above me, panicked. Her hand was on my chest.
"Rael—! You collapsed! What happened?!"
"I... I saw him."
"Who?"
"Me. Before me."
Her brows knitted. She helped me sit up. Her fingers lingered on mine. Her heartbeat? Rapid.
"Stop scaring me like that," she muttered. "I thought I—"
She cut off.
I looked up.
She looked away.
"You what?"
"Nothing," she said too fast.
"You were worried."
"Shut up."
"You like me."
"I will stab you."
"You're still holding my hand."
She blinked. Looked down.
"...Damn it."
---
Epilogue: "Thorns & Threads"
That night, I stood on the rooftop again. Stars overhead. Kevin beside me, wrapped in a scarf he stole from Kai.
Zayn's voice echoed in my mind:
"She loves you. And something ancient remembers."
And just below
mira sat at her window, fingers tracing the scar I gave her from training, staring up at me like she wished she could say more.
And beside her
A single page from her sketchbook.
Me. Sleeping. Smiling.
Her fingers brushing the ink.
Her whisper
"I'll protect you... even if it means killing fate itself."