Lucien stood in the smoke's embrace, ash clinging to his skin like guilt. The altar was no more—just a crater, glowing with embers, hot enough to melt steel but not nearly hot enough to burn away the cold spreading in his chest.
She was gone.
Vanished.
Torn from his arms by a scream that wasn't just sound—it was a prophecy, a punishment, and a promise.
"Aira…" he whispered, fists digging into the scorched earth. "No, no—come back to me. I'm not letting you go. Not again."
Kael stepped beside him, his voice haunted. "She's not just trapped in a rift. She's between worlds now… and if we don't act fast, we'll lose her to the fire realm forever."
Lucien snapped his head up, eyes blazing. "Then we go after her."
Kael didn't flinch. "It's not that simple. That scream she unleashed—it wasn't just pain. It was a seal-breaker. Every cursed soul tied to her flame… has now awakened."
Lucien's jaw clenched. "So we're not just rescuing her. We're going to war."
Suddenly, the ground rumbled again.
From the edges of the crater, shadows rose—warped, whispering, and burning red-eyed. The Flame Keeper's army.
Lucien's sword flared to life, matching his rage.
Before either man could strike, a portal opened in the air with a thunderous crack.
From within stepped an unexpected figure—Cassia, Lucien's icy-tempered half-sister, clad in royal armor, her sapphire cape dragging sparks in her wake.
"Well, well," she smirked, twirling a dagger between her fingers. "You boys always break the world when you're heartbroken."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Why are you here?"
Cassia's smirk faded. "Because if you think I'll let my future sister-in-law roast herself in the fire realm without me, you've lost your damn minds."
Lucien stood. "We're going in."
Kael growled, "Without a map? Without a key? You'll die."
Cassia held up a glowing mirror shard, pulsating with Aira's magic. "We've got her heartbeat, don't we? That's all the compass we need."
Before Kael could argue, Lucien stepped into the portal first.
---
Meanwhile…
Aira hovered in the rift, fire swirling around her like a dragon made of stars. Her body drifted, her heart racing with memories she didn't remember owning.
A child screaming.
A woman chained in flames.
Lucien—smiling.
Then Lucien—bleeding.
Then Lucien—lying.
Her mind tore itself apart.
"What… am I?" she whispered.
From the shadows, a voice echoed.
"Mine."
Aira turned.
A man stood there—cloaked in red, his face hidden, but his presence suffocating.
"I've waited centuries," he said, stepping closer. "Now you're finally free… and you will burn the world with me."
Aira's hands trembled. "I'm not yours."
"Oh, but you are," he said softly. "You're my queen of ash."
He reached for her face.
She slapped his hand away—and the rift trembled.
But something sparked within her chest.
Lucien's voice.
Aira, come back to me. I don't care if you're fire or fury—I want all of you.
Her eyes flickered. Her heartbeat quickened. Her fire… pulsed with purpose.
The cloaked man frowned. "What is that?"
Aira smiled through the flames. "Hope."
Then the mirror shard in Cassia's hand, far away, exploded with light.
Lucien gasped, clutching his chest. "She heard me."
Kael looked at the blazing portal. "She's calling us in."
Lucien grinned for the first time in chapters.
"Then let's answer."
The portal blazed behind Lucien, but his eyes were locked on the shard still glowing in Cassia's palm—warm, pulsing… alive.
"That light," Lucien murmured, "it's her. She's fighting him."
Kael's brow furrowed. "Then we don't have much time."
Cassia snapped her fingers. "Let's cut the dramatics. I'm not here for a tearful reunion—I'm here to get Aira back before that fire freak turns her into his eternal bride."
Lucien's jaw tightened. "Over my dead body."
Kael shot him a look. "That can be arranged if you rush in blind."
Lucien turned to the portal, ignoring them both. "Then I'll burn blind. I'll scorch every realm if it means bringing her home."
And with that, he stepped into the fire.
---
Inside the rift…
Aira stood barefoot on a floating fragment of obsidian, her silhouette surrounded by cyclones of golden flame. But her eyes—those shimmering orbs once filled with innocence—now held the cold wisdom of a thousand lifetimes.
Across from her, the Cloaked Flame King raised a hand.
"I've been patient," he said. "I watched you fall in love with a mortal. I watched him chain your power, dim your light."
"You mean Lucien?" she whispered, voice thick with heat. "He didn't chain me. He gave me a choice."
The Flame King growled. "He made you weak."
"No," Aira said, her body rising in the air, flames coiling around her like loyal wolves. "He made me human."
With a flick of her fingers, a flame blade shot toward him.
He dodged with a snarl, summoning a wall of molten glass.
"You think you're ready to fight me?" he laughed. "You're not even whole."
"I don't need to be whole," she said. "I just need to remember who I am."
Then—
Lucien burst through the rift.
He crashed to the ground, smoke rising from his shoulders, eyes wild, lips bleeding from the force of entry.
"Aira!"
She turned—instantly, painfully.
Their eyes locked.
Everything else stilled.
For a second.
Only a second.
Then the Flame King roared. "You dare bring him here?"
Lucien rose to his feet, sword drawn. "Try and stop me."
---
The battlefield erupted.
Fire against fire.
Steel against shadow.
Aira stood between them, heart torn, soul divided.
Lucien's voice cut through the chaos. "Aira, look at me! I'm not leaving without you."
The Flame King hissed, "Say his name again, and I'll burn it from your memory."
"I already remembered it," Aira whispered.
Suddenly—
She clutched her chest.
The fire around her flared uncontrollably.
Lucien screamed, "No! She's overloading!"
Kael's voice echoed from beyond the rift, "Pull her out or she'll combust—her soul can't handle both halves at once!"
But it was too late.
Aira collapsed mid-air, her body caught in a spiraling storm of white fire.
Lucien ran toward her.
The Flame King laughed maniacally. "And now… she becomes mine."
Just as Lucien leapt forward—
The ground cracked.
Aira vanished again.
But this time…
She didn't fall into flames.
She was pulled—by an invisible force, through a jagged mirror of light.
Gone.
Lucien's roar tore through the rift like thunder.
Cassia appeared beside Kael at the rift's edge, her face pale. "Where did she go?"
Kael stared into the broken magic. "She didn't go deeper… she was taken. Someone else is pulling her strings now."
Cassia's hand trembled. "Someone worse than him?"
Kael's voice was hollow. "No… someone ancient."
Lucien fell to his knees, eyes blazing with desperation. "I'll find her. I'll burn every plane, shatter every god, break every law of time."
He looked up.
"I swear—on blood, soul, and flame—whoever took her… I'm coming."
The silence after Aira vanished was not peace—it was the sound of worlds holding their breath.
Lucien stood frozen, arm outstretched, as if the echo of her scream still vibrated through his bones. His knuckles bled where he had punched through fire to reach her. But all he held now was smoke.
Kael knelt beside him, hands pressed to the broken ground. His voice trembled, but not from fear—from revelation.
"She's been taken. But not by the Flame King."
Cassia's eyes narrowed. "Then who the hell is powerful enough to steal her from a god?"
Kael met her gaze. "Only one being ever could…"
A shiver slithered through the air, like a serpent coiling around their spines.
Lucien turned slowly. "Say it."
Kael hesitated—then whispered the name like a curse.
"The Mirror Queen."
Cassia stepped back. "No. That's a myth. She was sealed in the Forgotten Plane centuries ago."
"Exactly," Kael said, his voice sharp. "And Aira's soul just reopened that prison."
---
Meanwhile…
Aira floated in a realm of shattered reflections.
Each mirror whispered her name in a thousand voices—some pleading, some mocking, some… terrifyingly familiar.
Her hands trembled as she reached for a shard.
It showed her and Lucien—laughing beneath the night sky.
Another piece—Kael holding her as she bled in a battlefield of fire.
A third—her face, but older, crueler, a crown of obsidian weighing down her head.
Then came the voice.
Silken. Sinister. And ancient.
"Welcome home, child of flame."
Aira spun. Shadows swirled, and from the largest mirror stepped a woman cloaked in glass and silence.
Eyes like galaxies. A smile carved from secrets.
The Mirror Queen.
"You've danced with fire," she said softly, circling Aira. "But mirrors… mirrors never lie. They reveal."
"What do you want from me?" Aira demanded, trying to summon her flame—but nothing came. Her power felt like it was being leeched away.
"I want what's already mine," the Queen whispered, touching Aira's cheek. "You. You're the last heir of the Mirror Line. Your soul remembers. And soon, your body will too."
"No… I belong to—"
"Lucien?" the Queen laughed—a sound like glass breaking inside the soul. "That boy? That broken prince who chained your true self? Let me show you who he really is."
Suddenly, a mirror swirled.
Lucien was in it—alone in the ruins—clutching something to his chest.
A dark crystal.
A forbidden relic.
Cassia screamed at him in the background, "That's cursed! Lucien, don't—!"
But he gripped it tighter.
His voice was hollow. "I'll pay any price. Just bring her back to me."
Aira's heart dropped.
"No… what are you doing, Lucien…"
The Mirror Queen smiled. "Even the purest love can be poisoned by desperation."
Then the Queen's crown began to glow—and her face… shifted. For a moment, Aira saw her own reflection in the woman's face.
Because the Mirror Queen wasn't a stranger.
She was what Aira would become…
If she broke.
---
Back in the real world…
Kael looked up suddenly, panic seizing him. "Something's wrong. I can't feel her. Not even her fire."
Lucien stood, fingers still wrapped around the forbidden relic.
Cassia lunged at him. "Lucien, STOP!"
But it was too late.
The stone glowed red.
Blood dripped.
And from the sky, the clouds split open.
A beam of black fire crashed into the earth—shattering trees, tearing apart magic circles, and forming a crater of chaos.
From within the smoke, a voice rose.
Not Aira's.
Not the Mirror Queen's.
Something worse.
Something ancient.
Something forgotten.
It whispered just one word:
"Reborn."