Chapter 7 Ashes and Promises

Rael's POV

A beast-like wind wailed its grief through the mountain pass. The chilly wind attacked me at the cliff edge, where I watched Kaela's path into the distance. She had moved beyond reach because she ventured into the Forest of Echoes, which developed a region of terror that puts skilled warriors on edge. I carried out more roles than being a warrior alone. I was a prince. A betrayer. The assassin fell deeply in love with his target even though the mission commanded him to eliminate her.

And I was going after her.

My fingers gripped the weapon's handle more firmly. Our last dialogue replayed in my thoughts because she discovered my real identity while crying during that conversation. Rael. Not Ash. She held no comfort from me when nightmares invaded her dreams. She did not bond with the young boy who brought happy fireside laughter. As the Fire Prince, I carried the royal lineage of an aristocratic legacy responsible for vanishing her people from existence.

And still, she hadn't tried to kill me.

Not yet.

The woods swallowed the fading sunlight as I entered deeper into their shadowed depths. Light shadows wandered through the tree lines as whispers smoked their way into my ears like fog. "Traitor," they said. "Liar. Doomed."

The pendant she left behind pulsed faintly in my hand-a crystal moonstone, the last gift of her mother, the Spirit Queen. Kaela had thrown it at me when she fled, but I kept it. It burned cold against my palm, as if remembering the warmth of her neck.

Hours passed. Or maybe days. Time didn't flow normally in this forest. It twisted and bent, warping reality and pulling at my memories. I saw flickers-Kaela dancing beneath moonlight, her fingers entwined with mine, a vision from a past life I shouldn't have remembered. But I did. And I knew, with a terrible certainty, that this was not the first time I had betrayed her.

It wouldn't be the last-unless I changed everything.

I found her at dawn.

The water pool in front of her showed a fragmented reflection of herself as running waves moved, although she didn't touch the surface. She displayed shoulder tremors while her wet hair hung in disarray as she faced me with eyes that looked nothing like Kaela's.

They were the Moon Shards.

"Why are you here?" she asked. No fury. No tears. That empty voice fractured my inner being.

"Because I have nowhere else to be," I said. "Because I'm tired of being a weapon. Because I remember."

She stood slowly. "Then you know what you've done. What we were. What we lost."

I nodded. "And I want to fix it."

Kaela's hand brushed the pendant I held out to her. For a moment, her fingers trembled against mine. Then she pulled away.

"You can't fix what's already broken, Rael," she said. "Not this time."

"But I can help you stop her," I said. "Solara. She's the one behind the war. The lies. She used us both."

"And you still did what she asked," she whispered.

"I know. But let me undo it. Please."

The wind shifted. Somewhere, deep in the woods, a horn blew-one of the Priestess's scouts.

Kaela met my gaze. "Then run with me, Rael. Not as a prince. Not as a soldier. But as the man who once loved me."

"I still do," I said.

She didn't smile. But she didn't walk away.

We ran together into the forest, the world behind us burning with the fire of old wars and shattered truths. Ahead lay more dangers-spirit trials, ancient ruins, and the heart of the Spirit Realm.

But for the first time, we were no longer enemies.

We were shards of a broken moon, trying to make ourselves whole.