Chapter 32 – Strings of the Forgotten
The air inside the chapel thickened as silence fell between Raen and Caelia.
She stood motionless, bathed in the fractured moonlight that poured through the stained glass. Her knife—a slender, ritualistic thing etched with script that no longer belonged to any living language—gleamed in her hand. But she didn't move. Not yet.
Raen, heart pounding in a rhythm he didn't recognize as fear, took a single step forward.
"Caelia," he said, low. "Why are you here?"
Her lips twitched. A near-smile. Not quite sane.
"You forgot me."
Three words. But they hit harder than any blade.
Raen didn't answer. He remembered her too well—shadows of blood rituals under ruined starlight, whispered promises made in the Godless years. She'd followed him once, loved him in the way poison loves the wound.
He'd left her behind in the city of ash.
She took a step forward, bare feet whispering over the cracked floor.
"Do you remember what I called you?"