The mark on the door didn't fade with time. If anything, it darkened.
Kael had tried to scrub it off with water and salt. Nothing worked.
"Don't touch it again," he told Aira. "It nearly pulled you under last time."
She nodded, but her thoughts were a whirl of dread. The vision hadn't just shown her a warning—it had felt personal. Like someone had carved their memory into her soul.
She spent the day poring over her grandmother's old texts while Kael patrolled the nearby woods. The Watcher… the Echo curse… the symbol in blood… All the pieces were scattering faster than she could catch them.
Until night fell.
And the whispers began.
She heard them first when she was alone at the fire. The wind didn't move, but the air shifted.
"Aira…"
She turned sharply. Nothing.
"Aira, you must leave him…"
The voice was neither male nor female—timeless. Ageless. It made her heart freeze and her limbs numb.
Then a face appeared in the flickering firelight across the windowpane—hers.
But older.
Aira screamed.
Kael rushed in from outside, blade in hand. "What happened?!"
She pointed to the window. "I saw someone… Me. But older."
Kael went to the door, but no one was outside. No tracks. No shadow.
"A memory?" he asked.
Aira shook her head. "It wasn't just a memory. It was me. From the future."
Kael took her hands, eyes intense. "Then whatever's coming… you've already survived it once."
She wasn't so sure.
Because the last thing the whisper said was:
> "If you stay with him, time will take him again."