The instant Belinda stepped forward, the world shattered.
Or perhaps, it wasn't the world breaking, but her own sense of reality.
The air was ripped from her lungs as a force unlike anything she had ever known engulfed her. It was neither light nor darkness but something beyond them both, an abyss of swirling energy that pulled her in, cradled her, consumed her.
Her pulse pounded in her ears. Her body felt weightless, suspended in the endless nothingness.
Then came the whispers.
Soft at first, like wind stirring the leaves, but soon they grew insistent, weaving around her like threads of an unfinished story.
"Belinda… you return at last…"
"You have forgotten, but the realm has not fojrgotten you."
Images flickered before her eyes, fragments of a past she did not recognize but that ached with familiarity. A darkened castle bathed in moonlight. A garden of silver roses. A pair of hands, her hands, reaching for another's, fingers intertwining with a touch that sent fire through her veins.
And those eyes.
Silver, storm-laden, burning with an emotion that sent a tremor down her spine.
"Come back to me…"
The voice was deeper now, filled with something raw and desperate, laced with a longing that made her chest tighten.
Then—impact.
Her knees hit solid ground. The rush of energy ceased, leaving her gasping, trembling. The air was thick, charged with something ancient and powerful, and the scent of rain and stone filled her lungs.
Slowly, she lifted her gaze.
The world before her was… unreal.
The sky stretched in endless twilight, painted in hues of deep indigo and violet, as if the sun had long since vanished and only the moons remained to guide the night. And there were two moons, both glowing with a ghostly silver light that bathed the entire landscape in an ethereal glow.
Towering spires of obsidian and marble rose in the distance, their surfaces catching the moonlight like fractured diamonds. The trees surrounding her bore leaves of midnight blue, their veins pulsing faintly as if carrying something more than mere life. Strange, luminescent flowers dotted the ground, shifting colors from deep crimson to iridescent gold as if reacting to her presence.
Belinda's breath hitched.
This place was alive.
It was magic woven into land, time and power entwined in a realm that whispered her name.
A deep voice shattered the silence.
"You finally remember."
Belinda whirled around, heart pounding.
He stood just beyond the trees, his silver hair catching the light like woven stardust. His coat billowed slightly in the faint breeze, and in his piercing gaze was something more than recognition, a claim.
She took a step back. "Who are you?"
A ghost of a smirk played on his lips, but it was edged with something unreadable. "A name will not be enough, not after everything we were."
His words sent an involuntary shiver down her spine.
Everything we were.
Belinda clenched her fists, willing herself to stay steady, to resist the pull that his voice, his presence, had on her. "I don't understand," she murmured. "What is this place?"
"The realm beyond the veil." His silver eyes darkened. "And your true home."
Her heart skipped a beat.
No.
That wasn't possible. She had a home, Veywyn, her cottage, the world she had always known. And yet, as she stood there, the weight of the air pressing against her skin, the memories clawing at the edges of her mind, she knew.
She had been here before.
She had walked these lands.
And the man before her, she had known him, too.
Not as a stranger.
Not as a mere shadow in the night.
But as something far more dangerous.
Far more intimate.
Belinda swallowed hard. "Tell me the truth."
The wind stirred around them, and he took a slow step forward, closing the space between them inch by inch, his gaze never leaving hers.
"You were never meant for the mortal world, Belinda," he murmured, his voice smooth as silk, dangerous as the blade of a dagger. "You were stolen from this realm. Torn away, hidden where even I could not find you."
The air between them crackled.
She shook her head. "That can't be true."
His smirk faded. "Then why does your soul remember me, even if your mind does not?"
Her breath caught.
He was too close now, his presence wrapping around her like an intoxicating heat. His scent, night-blooming flowers and something rich and dark, clouded hert senses, making her mind spin.
And then, so softly, he whispered, "Say my name."
The world stilled.
Belinda's lips parted. A name, just at the edge of her consciousness, burned to be spoken.
A name she should not have known.
A name she could never have forgotten.
Her vision swam. The moons above pulsed. The whispers of the realm swirled around her, urging, waiting
And she knew.
She knew who he was.
And she knew that whatever had brought her back to this forgotten world…
Had only just begun.