The dream came quietly at first, like the memory of a song half remembered.I was standing in water, knee-deep, the river shining like black glass beneath the moon. The air was heavy, thick with mist. I couldn’t see the far shore, only the faint ripples moving toward me. Then came the sound—soft, like a sigh carried through the current.When I looked down, the water no longer reflected the stars. It reflected eyes. Countless eyes staring up at me, waiting.I woke before they blinked.The room was dark, lit only by the faint glow of the dying hearth. My skin was damp with sweat, and my heart beat faster than it should have. For a long time I lay still, listening. The night outside was quiet, too quiet.The window was open. I could hear the river beyond the walls, its voice low and restless. It had never sounded like that before.I sat up and wrapped a shawl around my shoulders. The air was cool, and the scent of rain drifted in. I crossed to the window and looked out. The city slept peaceful

The nights were growing longer again. The moon had hidden behind the clouds for three days now, and every time the wind whispered through the trees, it carried with it a sound that wasn’t quite human. We had moved deeper into the ridge to find shelter, but safety felt like an illusion no one truly believed in anymore.I sat near the entrance of the cave, watching the fire burn low. The others were scattered across the small space, their exhaustion filling the silence. Mira was asleep against the wall, her blade still clutched in her hand. Leo kept watch near the far side, eyes half-closed but never truly resting. And then there was Luca—silent, withdrawn, his shadow stretching long across the stone floor.He hadn’t said much since the night we escaped the ruins. When he spoke, it was only to give orders or to check the perimeter. Yet even when he said nothing, I could feel him. The air always seemed to shift when he was near. It wasn’t fear anymore. It was something deeper, something I

The first thing I felt was the cold. It wasn’t the kind that touches skin; it was deeper, inside the bones, like the echo of something that had once burned but was now only ash. My breath came out in a whisper, thin and trembling, and when I opened my eyes, the world was blurred by light.For a moment, I thought I was still dreaming. The forest around me shimmered faintly, as though caught between two realms. The trees bent toward the ground, heavy with mist, and the air hummed with something familiar. Then I heard it—a voice, faint but undeniable.Luca.My heart stuttered. I turned sharply, my pulse quickening. The sound came from nowhere and everywhere, like the wind had learned to speak his name.“Luca,” I whispered back, though I wasn’t sure if I spoke to him or to the memory of him.Mira’s voice cut through the silence. “Grace.”I turned toward her. She was kneeling a few feet away, her face pale, her hands still glowing faintly from the last spell she had cast. Leo stood beside her, h

The night had gone silent, heavy as stone. The last fires on the ridge had died, leaving only the cold shimmer of the broken mirror and the low hum of the wind passing through what remained of the old chapel walls. Grace stood beside Lucas, her palms trembling, her breath uneven as if the air itself carried shards of memory that could cut her open if she breathed too deeply.He hadn’t spoken in hours. The glow that once pulsed beneath his skin had dimmed to something fragile and uncertain, like a candle flickering in the rain. His eyes, dark and haunted, stayed fixed on the shattered mirror at their feet.Every shard caught a reflection that didn’t belong to this world. Sometimes it was her face. Sometimes his own. And sometimes… someone else’s. The image shifted with the rhythm of his heartbeat, as though the mirror remembered what he could not bear to.Grace reached out, her fingers brushing his sleeve. “Lucas,” she whispered, “it’s over. The mirror is gone. You can let her rest now.”H

The nights were no longer silent. Even when the wind was still, even when the waves slept against the cliffside, I could hear her voice. Sometimes it was faint, a sigh that drifted between the curtains. Other times, it came like a whisper from inside my chest, her name echoing through me until I forgot where I ended and the shadows began.Valeria.It wasn’t possible—yet everything about her refusal to stay dead defied possibility. The fire should have consumed her, and the curse should have shattered with the mirror, but some part of her lingered. I could feel it. Every time Grace touched me, every time I looked into her eyes, I felt Valeria’s presence like frost beneath my skin.Grace didn’t speak of it anymore, though I saw the way her gaze lingered on me when she thought I wasn’t watching. The fear wasn’t of me—it was for me. She knew what I carried. She saw it every time my hands trembled, every time the mirror flickered when I passed.Tonight, I stood alone on the balcony, the ocean