Edenvale had bloomed into something radiant—gardens filled with celestial flora, stars that whispered softly to the trees, and mortals walking side-by-side with beings once thought divine.
But Ayden felt a storm quietly building.
He hadn't told Elira.
Not yet.
About the dreams.
About the voice.
Or the strange girl he kept seeing in the crowd—always watching, never speaking. With eyes as golden as sunlight after rain.
---
The Dreams Begin Again
They started softly.
Kael's voice in the breeze. Her laughter echoing down empty streets. Her feather glowing warmer each time Ayden held it.
Then the dreams grew sharper.
He stood beneath the starlit tree again—but this time, he wasn't alone.
A girl with windswept black hair and a soft cloak of stardust stood beneath its boughs.
She didn't have wings.
But her smile was hers.
> "You found me once. You'll find me again."
---
The First Encounter
She came into the bookstore one afternoon.
The bell rang, and Ayden looked up—and nearly dropped the mug in his hand.
Same dark hair. Same golden eyes. Same quiet fire behind them.
She blinked at him, confused. "Do I… know you?"
Ayden's heart clenched.
"No," he said.
> But I think I've known you forever.
Her name was Arielle.
She was new in town.
No family. No memory before her sixteenth birthday. Just a journal filled with dreams she couldn't explain—and a strange pull to the lake at the edge of Edenvale.
Ayden didn't say anything then.
But he knew.
Kael had returned.
---
Elira's Realization
Elira noticed the change in Ayden.
The way he watched the stars more. How his eyes followed the stranger with gold in her gaze.
One night, as the two of them sat watching the constellations swirl, Elira asked:
> "Do you miss her?"
Ayden was silent for a long time.
"I never stopped."
Elira took his hand, gently, not with anger, but sorrow.
"She's part of you. I know that now. Maybe she always was."
---
The Decision
Arielle returned to the lake again and again, trying to find something she couldn't name.
She painted stars she'd never seen before. Hummed melodies she didn't recognize.
And in one dream—she whispered a name in her sleep.
> "Ayden."