I stood in the village once more. Smoke drifted from the charred remains of cottages, curling into the crimson sky as though the fire had only just died. Bodies still lay where they had fallen, untouched by time, their empty eyes staring sightlessly towards the heavens. Every dream left them exactly where I'd found them before.
Only...
This time the village didn't feel unfamiliar.
A hollow ache settled beneath my ribs.
I couldn't explain why, but every ruined street, every collapsed roof and blackened wall felt as though they belonged to a life I'd almost remembered.
Without thinking, I started walking.
Ash crunched softly beneath my bare feet as they carried me through the deserted streets with quiet certainty. I didn't need to decide where I was going. Somehow, I already knew.
The untouched cottage waited where it always had, standing alone at the edge of the village like the only survivor of a forgotten tragedy.
It wasn't grand. Just a modest timber home with weathered walls, flowerbeds overflowing with vivid blue and crimson blossoms, and a narrow stone path leading to a worn brass door handle polished by countless hands.
I crouched beside the flowers, brushing my fingertips across the delicate petals. The soft sensation sent another sharp pang through my chest.
"I know this place..."
The words slipped from my lips before I realised I'd spoken. A memory hovered just beyond my reach. Close enough to feel, but still I couldn't grasp it.
Slowly, I rose and followed the stone path.
The brass handle gleamed faintly beneath the moonlight.
If I opened the door, maybe I'd finally remember. Maybe I'd finally learn who I used to be.
My fingers hovered only inches away.
"You really don't want to see what's behind that door."
The gentle voice drifted through the stillness.
I froze as a shudder ran down my back.
"Why?" I asked quietly, my hand refusing to leave the handle.
"Because some things hurt too much to remember." His voice held a hint of sadness as he spoke.
I turned.
Rags stood a few paces away. Moonlight poured over his silver-white hair, each strand stirring gently in the breeze. His pristine robes shimmered softly where silver thread caught the light, while immaculate white wings rested folded behind him like freshly fallen snow.
Yet it wasn't his appearance that stole my breath.
It was the way he looked at me.
His silver eyes softened with unmistakable relief as though seeing me alive had eased a grief too heavy to carry alone.
A smile spread slowly across his face. "You came back."
My heart answered before my mind could. Warmth bloomed through my chest. Every instinct urged me forward. To close the distance. To lose myself in the safety his presence promised.
My foot shifted towards him before I even realised I'd moved.
Then my gaze drifted back towards the cottage.
The longing returned. Not for him. For whatever waited behind that door.
"Do you know what's inside?" I asked as my fingers closed around the cool brass handle.
Before I could turn it, another hand settled gently over mine. Large enough to completely envelop my own. His warmth spread slowly through my fingers until I almost forgot I was holding the handle at all.
He stepped closer. Close enough that I could feel the steady rise and fall of his breathing behind me. One arm slipped carefully around my waist.
"You don't need to see." His voice brushed against my ear as softly as the evening breeze.
I swallowed. "Why won't you let me?"
"Because forgetting can be its own kindness."
With effortless patience, he eased my hand away from the door. Then, with the gentlest pressure against my waist, he turned me to face him.
My breath caught.
He was close enough now that I could see faint red flecks dancing within his eyes. Close enough that the rest of the village blurred into little more than smoke and shadow.
Heat spread through me like sinking into warm sunlight after years spent in the cold.
I tried to remember what I'd wanted to ask. What was this place? Why he knew my name.
Why—
"Why won't you..." The question never came.
He leaned forward. His lips brushed against mine.
The kiss was impossibly soft. His breath carried the faint taste of mint. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a tiny voice whispered that I should stop. That I should pull away. Open the door. Run.
Instead...
I leaned into him.
My arms rose of their own accord, settling around his neck as though they already knew where they belonged.
His embrace tightened fractionally, drawing me closer until the warmth of his body chased away every lingering thought.
The ruined village disappeared. The smoke. The bodies. The questions. None of them seemed important anymore.
When he finally drew back, his forehead rested gently against mine. His breathing had grown uneven.
"So many years..." he whispered. "I'm so glad I have you again."
His voice cracked.
"I ended your pain..." He paused, as though forcing himself to continue. "Only for them to take you away from me."
His shoulders trembled beneath my hands.
Something about that tiny shake twisted painfully inside my chest. I wanted to comfort him. Wanted to tell him everything would be alright. Tell him that I wasn't going anywhere.
The promise sat on the tip of my tongue.
But another question refused to disappear.
"What do you mean," I asked softly. "You ended my pain?"
For a long moment he simply looked at me. Sadness lingered behind his smile, carrying a loneliness so deep it almost hurt to witness.
His hand rose once more.
One fingertip traced gently along my cheek before tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
"You don't need to carry those memories anymore." His thumb lingered lightly against my skin. "You've found me."
His silver eyes held mine with quiet certainty.
"And this time..." His smile warmed. "I'll never let anyone take you away again."
He leaned towards me once more.
My pulse stumbled.
His silver eyes held mine so completely that everything else seemed to blur into the edges of my vision. The ruined village faded until there was only him standing before me, his expression impossibly gentle, his hand still resting lightly against my cheek. He was close enough that I could feel the warmth of his breath. Close enough that closing the last few inches should have felt effortless.
Instead...
Something twisted deep inside me.
A tiny knot of unease tightened beneath my ribs.
Stop.
The voice was little more than a whisper.
I frowned. He was hiding something. I knew he was.
Didn't I?
My body leaned forwards anyway.
Panic flickered through me. At the last possible moment, I forced my head to turn, and his lips brushed the edge of my ear instead.
A quiet laugh escaped him. "Stubborn."
His breath ghosted across my skin. Goosebumps raced down my arms.
"I've always loved that about you." His voice remained soft. "Yet you always try to deny me."
His hand slipped gently to the back of my neck.
"But not this time." The smile on his lips lingered. "This time... I won't lose you again."
Agony exploded through my chest.
I cried out.
Heat surged from the mark above my heart, spreading through every vein until it felt as though molten metal had replaced my blood. My lungs refused to fill. My knees gave way beneath me.
The world lurched.
Instead of striking hard ground, I landed on something impossibly soft.
The village was gone. So was the sky. There were no walls. No floor. Only endless white stretching in every direction and a single bed beneath me, floating in a place that shouldn't have existed.
My shaking hand flew to the mark beneath my shirt.
The fabric was almost too hot to touch.
He sat beside me.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. His fingers slipped through my hair, carefully brushing it away from my face. "It won't hurt much longer."
His touch remained impossibly gentle. Tender. The sort of touch that should have been comforting.
"You always pull away." He smiled sadly. "You always run."
His hand rested lightly against my shoulder as he guided me backwards onto the mattress.
"I won't let that happen again." He leaned over me, and a kiss brushed my forehead. "I'll keep you safe."
Every instinct I possessed screamed at me to move.
To run.
To fight.
Yet none of them reached my body.
Instead...
Warmth spread through me again. The pain faded. The fear followed it.
His fingertips traced slowly down the side of my face. Each gentle touch quieted another thought. Another question. Another doubt.
"They'll never take you from me again." His voice wrapped itself around my mind. "You don't have to be afraid anymore."
His lips found mine once again.
No.
The thought came immediately.
I don't—
The protest vanished.
My arms lifted. Not because I'd chosen to move. Because they simply... Did.
They settled around his neck. My fingers threaded through his hair. I felt myself lean closer. Felt myself answering the kiss. Felt relief wash through me with every passing heartbeat.
This is right.
The certainty settled over my thoughts with frightening ease.
This is where I belong.
His arms encircled me.
"There you are," he whispered. "I knew you'd remember." His hand slid across my back. "You'll never be alone again."
The words filled the hollow place inside my chest so completely that tears stung my eyes.
Yes.
This was what I'd wanted.
Wasn't it?
To stay here. To never leave. To never question anything again.
Somewhere...
Far away...
Something was screaming.
The sound scratched at the edges of my thoughts like nails against stone.
Run.
The voice was desperate now.
Run before you can't.
I tried to listen.
The warmth smothered it. I closed my eyes and relaxed into his embrace.
His fingers tightened around me, clawing at my back.
Then—
Pain.
A sharp stab erupted through my shoulder. Not from him but from the bruise Kian had left when he'd thrown me into the training field. The pain sliced through the haze like lightning.
Everything stopped.
My eyes snapped open.
The warmth disappeared.
The relief vanished.
I wasn't choosing this.
I hadn't chosen any of it.
The realisation hit me with such force it stole my breath.
"No." The word escaped as a whisper.
His arms were still around me. My hands were still clutching him.
Panic exploded through every part of me as I shoved him away with every ounce of strength I had.
Caught off guard, he stumbled backwards across the bed.
For a heartbeat he simply stared at me. The hurt on his face looked painfully real.
"Ashleigh..." His voice cracked. "Why?"
I scrambled backwards until I almost fell from the mattress, then stumbled to my feet, putting as much distance between us as I could. My heart hammered so violently it hurt. My hand clutched the burning mark beneath my shirt.
"What..." My voice shook. "What are you doing to me?"
He blinked. "You were happy."
He stepped off the bed.
"You stopped fighting." Another step. "You finally came back to me."
The sadness drained from his expression. Something colder settled in its place. A smile returned to his face, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"You were finally mine."
"Who..." The words barely escaped my lips. "Who are you?"
Every beat of my heart sent another pulse of agony through the mark above it. Heat spread beneath my skin until it felt as though something alive had buried itself inside my chest.
He didn't answer. Instead, he took another step.
"Ashleigh." His voice remained impossibly gentle. "You're the one who wanted this."
He held out his hand. The invitation looked almost innocent.
"You can't change your mind now."
My body lurched forwards. Not willingly. My fingers twitched towards him before I caught myself. It felt as though invisible threads had wrapped themselves around my wrists, my shoulders, my ribs, pulling me towards him one careful step at a time.
"No..." The word came out as little more than a breath.
I forced my foot backwards. The effort sent pain tearing through my chest.
Another step.
Then another.
Every inch I stole away from him felt like trying to drag chains across stone.
"What..." My voice shook so violently I barely recognised it. "What did you do to me?"
"I didn't do anything." His smile never faltered. "You did."
Ice settled in my stomach.
I shook my head. "No."
A quiet laugh escaped him. "Oh, but you did."
There was no mockery in it. Only certainty.
"You came to me." His voice remained calm. "You begged me." His eyes never left mine. "You formed the contract."
The world seemed to stop.
The words echoed through the empty white space long after he'd spoken them.
Contract.
The mark.
Everything crashed together at once.
I stared at him. At first I thought my vision was blurring through tears.
Then I realised...
He was changing.
One immaculate white feather darkened. Then another. Black spread through the wing like ink bleeding through paper until the wing was a mixture of white and black.
The other wing...
Burned.
Black flames consumed pristine white feathers without producing heat or smoke. When the fire faded, nothing angelic remained. Torn leather stretched across jagged bone, riddled with holes as though centuries of battle had left it barely intact.
His silver hair darkened strand by strand until only a few pale strands remained.
Even his eyes shifted. A storm of crimson and violet started swirling beneath the surface of his silver eyes like lightning trapped inside glass.
I couldn't breathe.
"What..." My voice failed. "What are you?"
He smiled. The expression looked almost identical to the one he'd worn only moments ago. Only now...
I realised it had never reached his eyes.
"I think," he said quietly, "it's kinder if you continue believing I'm your guardian angel."
"Bullshit!" The word tore from my throat.
His smile widened.
"I became this..." His hand brushed lightly against his ruined wing. "Because of you."
Every hair on my body stood on end.
"Everything I sacrificed..." Another step towards me. "I sacrificed for you."
I tried to run.
My legs refused.
He reached me. One hand settled over the burning mark above my heart.
The instant his palm touched it—
Pain exploded through me.
I screamed.
His fingers curled slowly against my chest. Not enough to tear skin. Just enough to remind me he could.
"This..." His voice had become almost affectionate. "Marks you as mine."
Every word made the pain worse.
"No one will ever take you from me again."
His thumb pressed lightly over the mark.
"You see?" A knowing smile touched his lips. "You can't fight me."
His hand left my chest only to cup my chin. This time there was no tenderness. His grip forced my head upwards. I had no choice but to meet his eyes. The silver had vanished completely. Only crimson and violet remained, swirling like a storm ready to consume everything it touched.
"I know where you are."
The words froze my blood.
"I know exactly where they've hidden you."
My pulse hammered against his hand.
"I'll come for you soon."
"No..."
"I will." His smile became something monstrous. "And you'll come willingly."
I fought with everything I had to shake my head.
My neck wouldn't move.
"You won't tell anyone about me," he said in a matter-of-fact voice. "They'll kill you before they believe you."
Then his voice dropped almost to a whisper.
"You broke laws older than Heaven and Hell. You formed a contract with something they know to fear."
His face drifted closer.
"If they discover what you've done..." The corners of his mouth curled upwards. "You'll wish death had found you first."
I could barely think.
Barely breathe.
"The only person who will ever protect you..." His forehead almost touched mine. "Is me."
Something snapped. Every ounce of terror became fury. With a cry that tore my throat raw, I ripped one hand free. It felt like dragging it through wet cement. My palm struck his wrist. Hard.
His hand flew away from my face.
"I'll never belong to you!" The words echoed across the endless white.
His smile disappeared.
For the first time...
He looked furious.
The entire world shook.
His ruined wing exploded open behind him.
The white space fractured.
Black cracks spread through nothingness in every direction.
"You made a contract."
His voice no longer sounded human. It came from everywhere at once.
"And soon..."
The mark burned hotter than ever before.
"I'll come to collect."
The white world shattered like glass. Darkness rushed up to swallow everything.
