Chapter 41: Eyes Not His Own

Cael stood motionless.

The wind bent around him, as if the world refused to touch what he had become. Selene raised her blade. Alina didn't speak—she simply stepped in front of the girl.

"Say something," Selene whispered.

Cael blinked slowly.

When he spoke, it was his voice—but layered with another. Deeper. Colder. Ancient.

"I am here now."

Selene didn't lower her sword. "Are you still in there, Cael?"

His gaze drifted to her, and for a moment, she saw him—the frightened boy, the forgotten twin, the one who chose memory over wrath.

"Yes."

Then the fire in his eyes flared.

"But I am not alone."

The sky above cracked.

Not thunder. Something deeper. The kind of rupture that splits foundations.

Alina cried out. "The veil's weakening!"

The girl clutched her head. "Naerith is waking fully."

Cael fell to one knee. "He's pulling something through me."

And then it appeared.

A door.

Floating in the air. Made of bone and golden threads. Its handle: a weeping eye.

Cael looked up at Selene. "You need to close it."

"Can't you?" she asked.

He shook his head. "If I do, I disappear. Not just me—all of me."

Selene looked to Alina. To the girl. Then to Cael.

"I'll find another way."

The door creaked.

From beyond it, voices rose.

Screaming.

Worshipping.

Waiting.

And Cael whispered, "Hurry."