**Lingering feelings **

Moments ago Eliana could still feel Kieran's lips on hers. 

The heat, the urgency, the way his touch had anchored her when she was unraveling. 

But now, that moment was gone—torn away like a fragile thread cut too soon. In its place was an unbearable silence, stretching thick between them, raw and unresolved. The weight of what she had done—what they had done—settled heavily in her chest, a wildfire of emotions she couldn't begin to name. 

She hadn't thought. Hadn't planned. 

She had just acted, desperate for something real, something solid to hold onto in the wake of the unknown. And Kieran—Kieran, who was always so controlled, so guarded—had kissed her back taking her Innocence. 

Not hesitantly. Not reluctantly. 

With a force that made her tremble. 

But now? 

Now he was looking at her with golden eyes full of things he wasn't saying. 

And that terrified her. 

The fog pressed in around them, cool air curling over her skin like ghostly fingers. The shadows still loomed, dark and watching, but all she could feel was him. His warmth. His presence. The way he hadn't moved away, hadn't let the space between them grow. 

Until Caelan had ruined it. Again

Eliana let out a slow, uneven breath, her pulse thrumming beneath her skin as she turned away. Her hands clenched at her sides, her body betraying her, still aching from the stolen moment she'd barely had time to process. 

She forced herself to push it aside. 

Now was not the time. 

**It could never be the time.** 

"Well," Caelan mused, rocking back on his heels, eyes glinting with amusement. "That was dramatic." 

Eliana stiffened. 

Kieran exhaled sharply, his jaw tightening, the golden flicker in his eyes darkening. "Do you *ever* know when to shut up?" 

Caelan grinned, utterly unfazed. "I know. I just choose not to." 

Eliana wanted the ground to swallow her whole. The heat rising up her neck was unbearable, burning through the lingering chill in the air. 

Caelan tilted his head, studying them both with far too much interest. "Should I be worried about *whatever that was*? Or should I just start preparing for the inevitable doomed romance arc?" 

Eliana shot him a glare so sharp it could have cut through stone. "Caelan—" 

He held up his hands in mock surrender, but his smirk remained. "Relax, princess. I'm just saying, if we survive this, I'd love to hear all the details." 

She groaned, rubbing her temples. "I hate you." 

"Aw, I love you too." 

"Enough," Kieran growled, his voice edged with something that sent a ripple of tension through the air. Not just irritation. Something deeper. Something restrained. 

Eliana swallowed hard. 

Caelan sighed dramatically. "Fine, fine. We'll save the love story for later. But can we *please* focus now? Or did you two forget we're still in the middle of nowhere, being *hunted*?" 

The reminder sent an icy thread of reality threading back into Eliana's veins. 

Right. 

The kiss, the stolen moment—it didn't matter. 

Not when something out here had whispered her name like a curse. 

Like a promise. 

Her lips parted, the phantom sound of that voice slithering back into her mind, sending a chill straight down her spine. 

**Aurelya.** 

Her name, yet not hers. 

A name that felt like it belonged to someone else. Someone long forgotten. 

Something unnatural stirred in her chest, a cold weight settling deep in her bones. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to suppress the shiver threatening to rack through her. 

She didn't realize she had stopped walking until Kieran's voice broke through the haze. 

"Eliana." 

She looked up. 

Kieran was staring at her, the intensity of his gaze sending something sharp through her chest. He wasn't just watching—he was **reading** her, seeing things she wasn't even sure she understood herself. 

Her throat tightened. "I—" 

She didn't know what she wanted to say. 

But before she could find the words, Caelan shifted closer, his usual playfulness gone. "I was joking before, but… seriously. That thing—whatever it was—it called you by name." 

The wind picked up, rustling through the trees, sending the leaves whispering around them. 

A whisper that almost sounded like a voice. 

Eliana's hands curled into fists. "I don't know why." 

Caelan studied her, his sharp gaze uncharacteristically serious. "But you felt something, didn't you?" 

She hesitated. 

Kieran's jaw ticked, his fingers twitching at his sides as if he was holding himself back. 

Eliana forced herself to nod. "I… I don't know how to explain it." 

The memory of it slithered through her mind—how the voice had seemed to seep into her very *soul*, wrapping around her like a chain. 

Like it had known her. 

Like it had been **waiting**. 

Caelan muttered a curse under his breath. "Yeah, well. That's not unsettling at all." 

Eliana turned her head slightly, sneaking another glance at Kieran. He was still staring at her, his expression unreadable, but there was something—**something**—lurking behind his golden eyes. 

She felt it like an unspoken truth pressing against her. 

He knew something. 

Something he wasn't saying. 

A gust of wind swept through the trees again, curling around them, colder this time. The sensation was almost… unnatural. 

Eliana shivered. 

Kieran's hand twitched at his side before, finally, he reached out. Not quite touching her. But close enough that she felt it—the warmth radiating from him, the silent offer of *something* she couldn't name. 

A steadying presence. 

A lifeline. 

But she didn't take it. 

She couldn't. 

Instead, she forced herself to straighten, to shake off the fear still clinging to her like smoke. "We should keep moving." 

Kieran studied her for another moment, something unreadable flickering in his gaze. Then, slowly, he nodded. 

Caelan exhaled, running a hand through his hair. "Great. Because I'd really prefer not to get murdered in the middle of the woods after watching you two have your little *moment*." 

Eliana glared at him. "Caelan—" 

"Not that it wasn't touching," he added with a smirk. "Truly, the tension is unbearable. But let's try not to die, yeah?" 

Eliana groaned, shoving past him. 

But even as they continued forward, the unease in her chest never faded. 

The voice, the name—**Aurelya**—still echoed in her mind. 

And Kieran's silence? 

' Does he feel anything for me ? Just like I do , am I falling too quick ? It was all suppose to be a fliting concersion. But why do I feel my heart ripple when he looks at me ? 

That was the most unsettling thing of all.