He had waited long enough.
The weight of his gaze pressed into my bones as if he wasn’t just looking at me but unmaking me—removing every layer of denial, defiance, and doubt I’d built to protect myself. The others stood just behind, frozen in a moment that didn’t belong to them. This was mine.
“You’re real,” I whispered.
“I am memory,” he said, stepping down from the brazier's flames like a god descending from a dream. “And flame. And future. You, child, are the spark that refused to die. My daughter in blood and essence.”
“No,” I breathed, but my voice lacked conviction.
Because I could feel it now—in the marrow of me. A call too old to name, a longing I’d never recognized. It wasn’t his power that scared me.
It was the echo of it in my own.
Kael moved to step forward, but the Fla
