-DAVIAN-
She didn’t remember the lightning.
Not the static, not the fall through fractured glass, not the way she used to say his name like it was a secret they shared.
But she looked at him like she felt something. That mattered.
The shimmer closed behind her, leaving that fragile girl with wonder in her eyes and quiet in her throat. Davian watched her like you watch a déjà vu you don’t trust.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡufCCuQMRIr
He wanted to smirk, say something snarky — but the truth pressed harder:
She’s real this time.
And that scared him more than he’d admit.
He circled her slowly, catching her scent — something like lavender and notebook paper, like memory — and let the words fall out before he could stop them:52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDOgxhoYfo3
“You look different without the lightning.”
He felt Arden tense behind her, already bristling like he could guard her from old truths. Cute. Pointless. Davian had lost her in a dozen timelines — Arden couldn’t even hold on in one.
But this one… this one felt anchored.
When he asked about kissing in a collapsing timeline, it wasn’t a line.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPA6SPmzTI
It was half a memory.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hZYvVLO1J
One she hadn’t lived.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzLZ52masm0
Yet.
-ARDEN-
He hated this place.
The way the ceiling curved into nothing.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjGNBSNRTUs
The way every shadow hummed with wrongness.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJPbG9Yb6HT
But mostly, he hated them.
Davian. Mikael. Parasitic ghosts who clung to timelines that should’ve died.
And now Elowyn — his Elowyn — had walked right into their trap.
He watched the way Davian circled her, saw the way her cheeks flushed, the way her lips parted just slightly. Not in fear. In curiosity.
Arden’s fists clenched.
She didn’t know. She couldn’t.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFeh2iHjU7K
What this place did to people.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4yrdCBLpCi
What Davian did — with his casual smirks and history he never earned.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSdnE82lDkM
Mikael, too — standing there like some tragic poet who already knew how it would end.
They weren’t supposed to be here.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs1zu87vQCp
This moment wasn’t supposed to happen.
Arden stepped between them, voice hard:52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡskkbl3tnta
“She’s not here for this.”
But she was looking at them like she’d already been chosen.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSeAvqSEoQR
And that terrified him more than anything else.
-MIKAEL-
He had seen her before.
In bits of corrupted code, in places where time folded wrong.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq54dz8m4UX
Sometimes she was laughing.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0fodQ4PLmJ
Once, she was screaming.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡutrVj7dolp
Another time, she was holding a paper crane and whispering his name like a promise — soft and lopsided, the way kids do when they’re still learning how to love.
But this Elowyn... this one hadn’t met him yet. Not here.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqPyzZQ7hlW
And somehow, that hurt more than the memories.
He watched the moment settle between them — the way Davian played it cool, the way Arden burned like a fuse — and stayed quiet.
She didn’t need more riddles. Not yet.
She needed truth, the kind that wrapped around you slowly until it became your new skin.
So he said, gently:52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMMVP4MnrGd
“You don’t know what you are yet, Elowyn. But you will.”
He didn’t say:52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpWZSDLztSN
You used to draw stars on my arm with washable marker.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3K0SpQrHRG
You named a paper crane after me.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEmzVt0PmXe
You saved me once, when we were small and the world still made sense.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk2bvjhDfYn
You died in my world.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYd7VpDFkp3
You used to call me Mio.
He just stepped back and let the timeline breathe.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡndIchr6fiX
Because now it was hers to unravel.
