The reflection spoke with Aiden's voice, yet it carried the weight of centuries.
Every word echoed like fire cracking through the dark.
Aiden stood frozen, his breath shallow.
The figure stepped forward, and the air around them shimmered, the world bending like heat above a blaze.
Aiden whispered, "You're not real."
The other smiled faintly. "Real enough to haunt you."
The light from the burning sky flickered against the twin faces.
It was like staring into a memory made of smoke.
"Who are you?" Aiden asked, though he already knew the answer.
"I am the part you left behind," the other said softly. "The flame that refused to die. The one who did not forgive."
Aiden's throat tightened. "Ariselle."
The reflection nodded. "Yes. The name they gave me when I was still capable of love."
The air between them pulsed.
Aiden could feel the echo of her power the same warmth that lived inside him, only sharper, colder, endless.
She circled him slowly, her bare feet silent against the cracked concrete.
"You carry my heart," she said. "But not my will. You were reborn weak, human, fragile."
Aiden frowned. "I didn't ask to come back."
Her eyes flashed gold. "No. But the world did."
"What do you mean?"
"The heavens woke because of you. The underworld stirs because of him. Everything that sleeps remembers what we did."
Aiden took a shaky breath. "What we did?"
She smiled not with warmth, but with memory. "You burned the world for love, my flame. You tore the sky apart so you could die holding him."
Aiden's heart stopped for a moment.
"Elias."
"Yes." Her gaze softened. "The man who was cursed for loving me. The one who fell so I could be free."
Aiden's voice trembled. "Then why am I back? Why is he back?"
Ariselle tilted her head. "Because you never finished what you started. The cycle resets, the fire rekindles, and the gods tremble once more. Love, it seems, is harder to kill than the world itself."
Aiden took a step back. "No. I'm not you. I won't destroy everything again."
She laughed, the sound like glass breaking. "You already are."
Outside, thunder rolled again. The light grew brighter.
Aiden turned toward the sound, but when he looked back, she was gone.
In her place, a small flame burned in midair.
It flickered, alive, whispering softly in his mind.
You cannot deny what you are.
Aiden reached for it, but the flame sank into his palm, searing his skin.
He gasped, clutching his hand and when he looked down, a new mark had formed beside the first.
This one pulsed dark red, shaped like an eye.
He fell to his knees, trembling.
Her voice echoed in his chest, faint and distant.
Every flame needs a shadow. You are both.
Somewhere beyond the ruins, Elias fought in the rain.
The soldiers from the underworld moved like ghosts, their armor reflecting the divine light above.
He struck one down, then another, his breath harsh, his mind elsewhere.
Each time his blade met flesh, he thought of Aiden.
He could feel the pulse of the Flame even from here wild, unstable, alive.
When the last soldier fell, Elias looked toward the horizon.
The storm above the city had changed. The lightning was no longer white.
It was red.
He whispered under his breath, "Aiden, what have you done?"
Aiden stood slowly, the new mark glowing against his wrist.
He felt the power surging through him terrifying and beautiful, like something that remembered every life he had ever lived.
But beneath the power, there was a voice.
Quiet, human, fragile.
Elias's voice.
And for the first time, Aiden understood.
The gods hadn't sent him back for punishment or mercy.
They had sent him back because love refused to end.
He looked toward the broken sky, his eyes glowing faintly in the light.
"Then let it begin again."