Aira stood at the edge of the frozen stream, the morning mist curling around her ankles like ghostly fingers. Kael was inside, sharpening his blades, unaware she'd wandered so far. She needed the silence—needed to breathe without feeling like the weight of her own history was crushing her.
The water rippled unnaturally.
Then she felt it—a presence.
Not Kael.
Not a shadow.
Someone real.
She turned.
A man stood across the stream, cloaked in dark, wine-red fabric, his face half-hidden beneath a hood. But his eyes—gods, his eyes—were the color of storm clouds before lightning: old, watching, knowing.
"You're far from the time you belong to," he said.
Aira's pulse spiked. "Who are you?"
He took a slow step forward. "A mirror. A warning. Maybe even a regret."
She stepped back cautiously. "Answer properly, or I'll scream."
He stopped. "Scream, and Kael comes running. He always does. But has he told you everything? Or just enough to keep you in his arms?"
Her throat tightened.
"Who. Are. You?"
The man pushed back his hood.
His face was sharp and angular, not handsome in a traditional sense—but devastating in presence. His jaw was shadowed with stubble, his mouth curved in something between amusement and pain.
"My name is Sareth," he said. "And I once loved you… long before Kael ever touched your skin."
The world tilted.
Aira blinked. "I don't know you."
"But your soul does," Sareth whispered, stepping into the stream, boots silent over the rocks. "It remembers me."
Before she could retreat, he reached out and gently brushed the back of her hand with two fingers.
⚡ The vision struck hard.
A flash of moonlight on silk sheets. Her own laughter echoing in a stone courtyard. Sareth's lips trailing down her bare spine. Whispers of promises never fulfilled. Her voice crying his name—not Kael's.
She jerked back, heart pounding.
"What was that?!"
Sareth's gaze didn't waver. "A truth you buried. One of many."
She clutched her chest. "No. I love Kael. I know I do."
"And yet your body remembers me." His voice was velvet, cutting deep. "Even now. You feel it. The ache."
"I don't—" Her voice cracked.
He didn't move closer. Just watched her, lips parting with deliberate slowness.
"You'll come to doubt him. You should. He's not who you think he is."
"You're lying."
"Am I?" His smile was bitter. "Ask him who he was before he became yours. Ask him why the time curse always starts with your first kiss."
She stared at him.
And for the first time, her heart wavered.
Kael's voice called from the woods.
Sareth vanished like fog—just… gone.
But his touch lingered, burning into her skin like a forgotten brand.
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