The morning after made the cabin feel different.
Aira lay wrapped in Kael's arms beneath thick blankets, her legs still tangled with his, skin still buzzing from the night before. The fire had died to embers, but she felt warm—filled in a way she'd never known before. Not just physically… but soul-deep.
Kael traced lazy circles along her bare back. "You didn't disappear this time," he murmured, his voice still rough with sleep.
Aira turned her face to his chest, smiling softly. "Maybe because I'm finally in the right time… with the right person."
He kissed the top of her head, then held her tighter. "Then let's stay like this. For a while."
But fate had other plans.
A sudden knock—hard and sharp—shattered the quiet.
They sat up instantly.
Kael grabbed the dagger he kept under the bedframe. Aira wrapped the blanket around her and moved toward the door cautiously, her palm tingling with that strange, familiar energy.
When she opened it, no one stood there.
Just wind.
And snow.
But something had been left behind: a symbol scrawled in blood across the wood. An ancient glyph neither of them recognized—but it pulsed, even from a distance.
"What is that?" Kael asked, stepping behind her, arm protectively around her waist.
Aira stared, her chest tightening.
"It's old magic," she whispered. "Binding magic… Shaman-born."
She stepped forward, hand trembling, and touched it.
The moment her fingers brushed the blood, the world tilted—visions slammed into her skull.
She stood in a circle of hooded figures. Her wrists were bound. The voice of her grandmother echoing:
> "If the blood mark appears, it means the time curse has begun again. It means someone else has remembered… and they want her dead."
Aira snapped back to reality, gasping.
Kael steadied her. "What did you see?"
She clutched his chest. "I'm not the only one who remembers. Someone else knows who I was."
His eyes darkened. "And they're coming for you?"
Aira nodded slowly.
"No," he growled. "They'll have to go through me first."
But deep in the forest, something watched them.
Waiting.