There was nothing.
No light. No sound. No gravity.
Just… the after.
Aeris floated in the void — not space, not time — just absence. Her body shimmered like a dying star, fractured with glowing veins of gold and violet. Pieces of her memories hovered around her like ghostly embers: Kael's voice, her laughter in the rain, the touch of fingers interlocked in the ruins of a future that might have been.
"Aeris," a voice echoed through the silence — not Kael.It was hers.
A version of her, older, more broken… or was she healed?
"You're not dead. You're in the Between. The Rift cracked, but you didn't shatter."
Suddenly, the darkness trembled — and reality snapped back.
She fell.
Straight through layers of forgotten timelines — ruins of failed futures, discarded moments like broken constellations. The ground rushed up in reverse, and she landed hard… in a place too quiet to be real.
A city.
Half-built, half-destroyed. Suspended in a dusky twilight that never shifted. Shadows moved, but there was no wind. Roads curved into staircases that led nowhere. Towers floated upside-down, and clocks ticked backward.
"Where… am I?" Aeris whispered, rising to her feet.
"Home," someone replied.
She turned.
Kael stood before her. But this one… wasn't right.
His eyes glowed silver. Not the warm hazel she knew. Not the blood-red of the dark Kael. This Kael felt… empty.
"You chose," he said. "And in doing so, fractured everything again."
"I didn't— I didn't even finish the choice—!"
"But it began," he said calmly. "That was enough."
Around them, fragments of other versions of Kael began to appear — floating, half-formed, flickering.
Each one a consequence.
"The Architect didn't destroy us. He unlocked us."
Suddenly, behind Kael, a massive mirror-like surface rose from the earth, reflecting not her face — but thousands of her.
Aeris stepped closer, heart pounding.
She saw Aeris the tyrant. Aeris the hero. Aeris who died in Kael's arms. Aeris who killed him.
"This is what the Rift was hiding," Kael said. "The truth of you. The potential of us."
He stepped aside. The mirror cracked.
And behind it… a door.
It pulsed with her heartbeat.
"One version of you holds the key to collapsing all timelines into one. The true timeline. The only chance at peace. Or oblivion."
"Why me?" she asked again, for what felt like the hundredth time.
Kael looked at her — and finally, his eyes softened.
"Because no one else loved through every ending."
Tears welled in her eyes.
And then—
Boom.
The sky above them tore open again, this time not with shadow — but fire.
The Architect was coming. But not alone.
From the flames stepped a figure Aeris hadn't seen since Book 2.
Her sister.
Alive.
Burning with paradox energy.
"You took everything from me," she hissed, eyes glowing with betrayal. "Now I take the last thing you love."
She raised her hand — and Kael began to dissolve, pixel by pixel, scream caught in his throat.
"No!" Aeris cried.
And just as she ran to him—
The door behind her flung open.
Golden light poured out, and a voice from inside whispered:
"You still have time. But the price… is you."
🔥 In next chapter, Aeris must face a future version of herself locked behind the golden door — a version who never forgave, who rules the Rift. What price will she pay to fix everything?