The sky above Solmar turned crimson.
Not from blood.
Not from sunset.
But from her.
Elira's return was not an arrival — it was a reckoning. Her presence painted itself across the horizon like a prophecy reborn.
People dropped to their knees as the wind howled her name, though none dared speak it.
But Jayden did.
> "Elira."
Maggy flinched, not from fear — from memory.
The last time they had seen Elira, she had vanished into smoke… after choosing silence over Jayden.
---
Jeff brought the letter at dawn.
Found tied to a dead hawk at the gates.
Written in a handwriting Jayden hadn't seen since he was seventeen.
Elira's.
> "You called for change. I became the storm. Now, will you stand in the rain with me?"
He read it twice.
Thrice.
Maggy read over his shoulder, her expression unreadable.
> "She's baiting you."
> "Or saving me," he whispered.
> "From what?"
Jayden looked out at the horizon.
> "From myself."
---
Elira had sent a location.
An old temple north of Solmar, where the snow never melted and shadows never whispered.
Jayden went alone.
Not out of pride.
But fear.
He didn't want anyone else to see what she'd become — or what he might become in front of her.
Inside, every wall reflected him.
But the reflection wasn't accurate.
Older.
Colder.
Crueler.
And at the center of it all, she stood.
Elira.
Wearing black.
Her hair longer.
Her eyes no longer gold — but gray.
As if she had bled her light out.
---
They didn't speak at first.
Their eyes did.
So much was said without syllables — betrayal, sorrow, longing, guilt.
Then she smiled.
> "You still wear that old sword."
Jayden chuckled softly.
> "And you still wear that expression. The one that says you're planning to destroy something."
She took a step forward, but Jayden didn't move.
> "I heard what you did to Solmar."
> "They left me no choice."
> "They always leave you a choice. You just never pick mercy."
Jayden lowered his gaze.
> "They said the same about you."
She touched his chest.
> "That's because they never loved us enough to believe we could be anything else."
---
She led him to the final mirror.
This one showed not the past.
But the future.
Jayden stood on a mountain, alone. A crown in his hand. A grave behind him.
Elira stood beside him.
But in the reflection — she was dying.
> "This is what I saw," she whispered. "The path you walk will end with me dying for you. Or because of you."
Jayden touched the mirror.
And it shattered.
> "Then I change the path."
> "It's not that simple."
> "It is when the alternative is you gone."
---
Back at Solmar, Maggy prepared her things.
She knew.
Even before Jayden returned.
Even before the tears on Mira's cheeks confirmed it.
Even before Jeff's silence gave it away.
Jayden's heart had been Elira's since the beginning.
She just borrowed it for a while.
But she smiled.
Because some love stories don't need forever — they just need to matter.
And hers did.
Even if the chapter had ended.
---
Jayden returned by midnight.
Wet from snow.
Eyes darker than before.
He didn't speak.
He just held Elira's hand.
Mira nodded.
Jeff turned away.
Linet whispered a prayer.
And in that moment, a kingdom that had once been broken, stood still.
Watching the two most dangerous lovers in history reunite.
One reborn.
One reforged.
Together, at last.
---
But peace?
Peace was always temporary.
A messenger arrived with a crown made of ice and ink.
No seal.
Just a phrase.
> "The Forgotten Kingdom remembers."
Jayden looked at Elira.
She touched the blade at her hip.
> "They shouldn't have remembered."
Jayden turned to his council.
> "Call them. All of them. The final war begins now."
---