Chapter 9: The Return and Chapter 10: Waiting in Stone
280 Words
Lyra didn’t leave far.
She told herself she did.
She flew beyond the cathedral, beyond the forest, beyond where Kael could see her—
But she didn’t go home.
Not back to Ember Peaks.
Not back to safety.
Instead, she landed on a distant ridge, pacing like something unsettled inside her had nowhere to go.
Because it didn’t.
Her fire flickered restlessly beneath her skin.
Not wild.
Not out of control.
Just… awake.
More than it had ever been before.
And it wasn’t because she had flown further than usual.
It wasn’t because she had left her mother’s watch.
It was because of him.
Kael.
The way he looked at her.
The way he didn’t flinch.
Didn’t fear.
Didn’t try to contain her.
That alone should have been enough to make her leave.
But it wasn’t.
It made her want to go back.
Lyra exhaled sharply.
“This is stupid,” she muttered.
Her wings flared—
And before she could second guess it—
She was already in the air.
Flying back.
Kael hadn’t moved.
Not much.
He remained at the tower’s edge, exactly where she had left him.
Still.
Silent.
Watching the horizon.
But something in him had shifted.
He felt it.
An unfamiliar restlessness that refused to settle.
His focus fractured.
His awareness split.
Part of him remained on duty.
The other—
Tracked something else entirely.
Her.
He didn’t know why.
Didn’t understand why her leaving felt—
Wrong.
But it did.
And when the air shifted—
When that faint warmth returned—
Kael’s gaze snapped upward.
There.
A streak of fire cutting through the night.
Returning.
His chest tightened.
He didn’t question that either.
- Writer
