Chapter Thirteen – The Echoes of the Past

Around them, the ruins breathed. As if the stones themselves were living things, whispering secrets that only they could hear, every gust of winds carried them. Watching her breath whirl in the damp, freezing air, Selene let out a sign. The weight in her chest grew heavier as they descended farther.

Asrael strolled next to her, his face unreadable .His though to see if they flexed his fingers once agamic, clenching and unclenching them.

Selene's stomach began to tighten, and she ignore it. Something had changed since he took the potion. He was different.

When she did say." You're quiet," it was softer than the last she had meant.

"So are you," he countered, keeping his gaze forward.

She sighed, hesitating for a moment before asking, "How do you feel?"

He huffed out a short breath. "Like I'm being pulled in two different directions. Like fire and ice are tearing me apart at the same time, but somehow... I can still stand."

Selene slowed her steps until they were walking side by side. "That's... not normal, Asrael."

He let out a low chuckle, though there was no humor in it. "Selene, nothing about us has been normal since the moment we met."

She wanted to argue, but she couldn't. He was right.

Still, something about the way he looked at his hands—the confusion in his eyes, the slight tremor in his fingers—it unsettled her.

"Asrael," she started, carefully choosing her words. "You felt it too, didn't you? That shift. Between us."

He glanced at her, his golden eyes darkening. "Yeah. I felt it."

There was a long pause before he finally spoke again, this time softer, as if admitting something he didn't want to say aloud.

"I could feel you," he said. "Not just like standing next to me—I felt you. I knew what you were thinking before you said it. I could tell what you needed before you even moved."

Selene swallowed hard. That was exactly how she had felt. Like their souls had brushed against each other, merging for just a second.

🔥 Something Watches 🔥

Before she could respond, a sharp sound echoed through the ruins—a whisper. Faint, but deliberate.

Selene froze, hand reaching instinctively for the dagger at her thigh. Asrael's posture changed instantly—muscles coiled, eyes scanning the darkness ahead.

They weren't alone.

"You heard that, right?" she murmured.

He gave a slow nod, his body tense. "Yeah."

The whisper came again. This time, it wasn't a sound carried by the wind—it was a voice. Low. Distant. Impossible to make out.

Then, it stopped.

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Selene's grip on her dagger tightened. "It's watching us."

"I know," Asrael muttered.

A cold shiver ran down her spine. The ruins weren't just old stone and forgotten history. Something alive was here. Something that had been waiting.

🔥 The Vision 🔥

Selene turned back to the carvings lining the wall, her fingers brushing over them absentmindedly. The symbols... they were familiar. Not in the way of having seen them before, but in the way a long-forgotten dream lingers just out of reach.

"Asrael," she whispered, heart pounding. "These markings. I think they're trying to tell us something."

He stepped closer, his brow furrowed. "I recognize them too. But I don't know how."

The moment he placed his palm flat against the stone, a pulse of energy surged through the ruins. The air trembled, the walls seeming to shift around them.

And then—

They were somewhere else.

The cold of the ruins was gone, replaced by a golden warmth. The cracked stones were now whole, radiating an ethereal glow. The sky above them was a deep, endless blue, swirling with shimmering streaks of light.

Selene gasped, turning in a slow circle. They were no longer in the present.

They were standing inside a memory.

Figures moved in the distance—people in flowing robes, their silver eyes glowing with quiet power.

Selene took a shaky step forward, her breath catching in her throat.

At the center of them all stood a girl.

Her wrists were bound in golden chains, her dark hair damp with sweat. She was kneeling, her chest rising and falling with ragged breaths. But it wasn't just any girl.

Selene staggered back, her pulse thundering.

The girl had her face.

"Asrael," she choked out, barely able to speak.

He was staring at the vision, his body rigid. His fists clenched, jaw tight.

"What the hell is this?" he muttered.

The figures surrounding the kneeling girl raised their hands, chanting something in a language neither of them recognized.

A voice boomed through the vision, powerful and unwavering.

"She must never awaken."

A sudden, overwhelming sense of dread filled Selene's chest. Her entire body screamed at her to run, to wake up—

One of the robed figures turned their head sharply, eyes locking onto hers.

Asrael swore under his breath. "Tell me they can't see us."

Selene couldn't answer. She couldn't breathe.

The figure raised a hand—toward them.

And just like that, everything shattered.

🔥 Back to Reality 🔥

Selene gasped, her knees hitting the cold, hard stone of the ruins. She pressed a hand to her chest, her heartbeat wild.

Asrael staggered beside her, cursing as he braced himself against the wall.

For several moments, neither of them spoke.

Finally, Asrael broke the silence, his voice strained.

"You saw it too."

Selene nodded, barely able to find her voice. "That was me."

"It looked like you," Asrael admitted, running a hand through his hair. "But that wasn't now. That was—"

"The past," she whispered.

They sat in heavy silence, the weight of the vision pressing on them.

Selene clenched her fists, forcing herself to steady her breathing.

If that was her, if she had been imprisoned in that vision, if she had been sealed away—

Then what was she now?

And why did it feel like something had just noticed them?