Chapter 3:the Pull Between Us
513 Words
Lyra didn’t speak. She couldn’t.
Her mind raced with questions, but none made it past her lips. Not when he was standing there — real, solid, breathing — and looking at her like she’d just stepped out of his sleep and into his reality.
“I know you,” he said again, softer now. Like a secret he’d been holding onto for years.
Lyra’s chest rose and fell, her throat tight. “That’s not possible.”
But she already knew it was.
She’d seen him. Dreamed of him. Felt him.
Not just in flashes of memory — in sensations. Like warmth curling around her ribs. Like electricity blooming low in her belly when the stars whispered his name.
He took a step closer. “I’ve seen you. Since I was twelve. In dreams. But not like this…”
He hesitated, his gaze dropping to her lips. “Never like this.”
Her heart thudded loud enough to echo through her body.
“I’ve seen you too,” she whispered. “In pieces. In… heat. In stars that didn’t belong to Caelora.”
Neither of them moved. The space between them pulsed with tension — not fear, but something older. Hungrier. Something neither of them had ever been taught to name.
“What is this?” Lyra asked, breathless.
Kael didn’t answer right away. Instead, he looked at her — really looked — like she wasn’t just a girl but something written into his soul.
“It’s what comes before memory,” he said finally.
She blinked. “What?”
He exhaled slowly. “It’s what my grandmother used to say. When something feels familiar, but you don’t know why — it’s not a dream. It’s memory, returning before you’re ready for it.”
And gods, she wasn’t ready.
But her body was. Every part of her was screaming to move toward him. Not out of lust. Out of recognition.
Out of belonging.
He stepped closer. So did she.
Now they were breath to breath. Closer than strangers. Closer than anyone had ever dared get to her.
His fingers brushed hers — not enough to hold, but enough to burn.
“Do you feel it too?” he asked, voice almost broken. “This… pull?”
She nodded. “Since the first whisper.”
His eyes flicked shut for a moment. Like her answer had done something to him. Like it hurt to hear it.
Then — a sound.
A crack in the distance.
Kael’s head turned sharply. “We’re not alone.”
“What do you mean?”
He didn’t answer. His jaw tightened, eyes scanning the trees. He grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him — protective without hesitation.
The fire behind them flared — suddenly blue.
Lyra gasped. The air shifted. The stars above dimmed.
Kael stepped forward, shielding her. “Show yourself!”
No answer. But the trees… were watching.
And in the blue firelight, Lyra saw something flicker behind Kael — a shadow shaped like a man, but taller… and wrong.
Whatever this was, it wasn’t done dreaming.
- Writer
