Page 100 of Ashen Souls

Not me.

I was just an intruder, hiding behind the eyes of the person he actually loved.

My pulse spiked, but the heart in my chest kept its own alien rhythm. I tried to recoil, but the body I occupied ignored me. I raised a hand, watching it move with a fluid control I didn't possess. The fingers were slimmer. The skin softer. Every motion was precise.

The vision ripped open, hurling me backward until I was no longer trapped behind her eyes.

I was watching them from above.

Suspended in the stillness, the scene sharpened into clarity. Below me stood the woman. Seeing her from the outside was like staring into a twisted mirror. Her hair was a shade darker than mine. Her skin was mapped with striking, pale patches of vitiligo. But the defiant tilt of her chin, the set of her mouth: she was an unsettling echo of my own face.

She was wearing a wedding dress.

The ceremonial layers were spun from deep, midnight silk that seemed to devour the moonlight. The hem brushed against damp moss and fallen needles. Beyond them, jagged mountains framed the glassy black surface of a forest lake.

Daeren stood opposite her, his focus narrowing to the woman in front of him.

He held something in his outstretched hands.

Two rings.

They were identical to the ring I had just left behind in Blackmere: the same alloy, the same geometry, the same rigid lines that mirrored the brand on my wrist. But here, they were flawless. The edges were razor-sharp, free of the softening wear of centuries.

Daeren lifted the smaller of the two.

As he turned the metal, the inside of the band caught the silver light. A line of script had been bitten into the surface.

I will always find you, Avelia.

Avelia. The name felt less like a discovery and more like a recovery—the missing half of a conversation I’d been having with myself in the dark.

He slid the ring onto her finger.

The second it met her skin, the brand hidden under my own sleeve flared in synchronization.

Avelia smiled.

The way he looked at her answered everything. I finally understood what kind of devotion could compel a creature like him to tear through time itself, just to make sure she was his again.

Something violently hijacked the vision. The tenderness in Daeren's eyes vanished, overtaken by raw, defensive instinct. Before I could process the shift, my awareness plummeted, crashing back into the borrowed body so hard my teeth rattled.

I was Avelia again.

And I was screaming.

An invisible, crushing weight slammed down on us, locking my limbs in place. The air solidified. I thrashed internally, fighting the unfamiliar restraints, but the hold was absolute. The clearing dissolved into a chaotic blur of blinding light and the crunch of heavy boots as a wave of men flooded in.

I tried to scream, but my lungs were frozen. The cry stayed trapped in my chest.

Don’t touch him…

Daeren’s roar cut through the clamor, but his sovereign command shattered against the magic holding him.

I couldn't wrench my arm free. I couldn't lurch forward. I needed to reach him, to press my palms against his chest and let the brand root him to the earth.

A man in a pristine white coat stepped in front of me. His face was a mask of aristocratic disgust.

Steel slid between my ribs.