For a moment, the world stood still.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
The wind froze in the air.Dust hung suspended.Even the Sanctuary's bells halted mid-swing.
Because the First Dawn Queen had spoken—
—and reality itself bowed to her voice.
Amila felt it in her ribs.Her soul.Her blood.
Her mark pulsed in recognition, desperate and hungry.
Kael stepped closer, wing half-outstretched, shielding her without realizing it.
"Don't touch her," he warned the Queen quietly.
The Queen smiled.
A serene, devastating smile only ancient rulers could wear.
"I do not intend to touch her, Fallen One," she murmured."I am simply retrieving what was mine."
Amila's voice cracked.
"I'm not an object."
"No," the Queen agreed."You are an inheritance."
Seraphine scoffed behind them."Oh please, mother. You only call her that because she awakened first—"
The Queen didn't even look at her.
"Silence, Liora."
Seraphine snapped shut, fury burning through her veins.
Claire leaned to Kael and whispered,"Damn… mom issues everywhere."
But no one laughed.
Amila took a step forward—just one—because the earth felt too fragile beneath her feet.
"My… mother?" she asked softly."You said she said the same thing as me."
The Queen regarded her with ancient, unreadable eyes.
"Yes," she said."The last thing she told me was 'no.'"
Amila's lips parted.
"What do you mean?"
The Queen exhaled.
And the sky shivered.
THE TRUTH OF AMILA'S MOTHER
"She was the firstborn," the Queen said."The original heir.The purest Dawn lineage in centuries."
Seraphine's jaw tightened.
Kael's heartbeat pounded—because he knew pieces of this.But not the whole truth.
Amila listened, breath shallow.
"She was meant to rule beside me.To inherit the Dawn throne.To marry a celestial of equal blood."
Amila's brows furrowed.
"…She didn't?"
"No."The Queen's voice darkened."She fell in love with a mortal."
Amila felt her stomach twist.
"M-My father."
The Queen nodded.
"Yes. A miracle-born human with a rare fate. Strong enough to carry a celestial's child."
Amila swayed slightly.
Kael's wings snapped open in alarm.
The Queen continued:
"But for her love, your mother was punished.Exiled.Stripped of her title.Cast out of the clan she was meant to lead."
Amila's pulse roared in her ears.
"That's why she left," she whispered."That's why she hid."
The Queen's expression softened.Barely.
"She begged me to spare you," she murmured."And I did."
Seraphine snarled.
"You didn't spare anyone. You were afraid of her prophecy—"
The Queen lifted a hand.
A single gesture.
Seraphine's voice vanished—literally removed from the air.
Claire blinked."Wow. I want that power for job interviews."
Kael didn't smile.
He was staring at the Queen.
"Her prophecy?" he asked quietly.
The Queen turned her gaze toward him.
Cold.Sharp.Knowing.
"She saw that her daughter would become a duality.Not just Dawn—but something darker.Something forbidden."
Amila froze.
"You mean… Raeth."
The Queen nodded.
"You were born with two destinies, child.Dawn and Dusk intertwined.Creation and Devourer bound in one life."
Kael's heart stopped.
"That's impossible. She should've—"
"Died?" the Queen finished calmly."Yes.You should not exist."
Amila staggered.
Kael caught her immediately.
"Don't listen to her," he whispered, voice rough.
But the Queen was not finished.
"There was only one way to preserve both halves of you," she said.
Her eyes shimmered like molten sunrise.
"Your mother hid you in the mortal realm.Cut your power.Wiped your memory.And sealed the darker half."
Amila's breath quickened.
"The Devourer."
The Queen nodded.
"The moment he awakened…your seal began to break."
Kael swallowed.
"But that doesn't explain—"
The Queen cut him off.
"It explains everything."
RAETH BREAKS THE FOURTH CHAIN
Far below the earth—
A roar echoed through the undercity.
Stone cracked.
Metal snapped.
And the fourth chain—the heaviest one—shattered like brittle glass.
Raeth lifted his head from the shadows.
His single red eye glowed like a dying star.
"That's better," he purred.
His aura pulsed—
—and Amila jerked violently, clutching her chest.
Kael grabbed her face.
"Amila! Stay with me!"
But Raeth's whisper slithered through her mind.
"Oh little light…did she tell you what she named you?"
Amila stiffened.
Kael froze.
The Queen's eyes widened—just barely.
Raeth's voice curled like smoke around Amila's heart.
"Not Amila.Not Serael.Your true name."
Amila gasped.
Her vision blurred—
light and shadow splitting her skull—
until one single forbidden name echoed across her bones:
Astrael.The Dawn Devourer.
The girl who was never meant to exist.
Kael's grip tightened.
The Queen stepped forward for the first time.
Seraphine's eyes gleamed.
And Amila?
She whispered—
"No… no no no…"
But the name burned through her soul.
A seed of power.A curse.A destiny.
Raeth's laugh filled her head.
"Welcome back, Astrael."
Amelia didn't know when Kael moved. One moment he was standing a few steps away, breathing like he was holding himself together by threads — the next he was in front of her, his hand cupping the back of her head, pulling her toward him with a controlled desperation that made her knees weaken.
"Don't look at him like that," Kael murmured, voice low, strained. "Not when he's trying to crawl into your mind."
She swallowed. "I wasn't—"
"Yes, you were," The Devourer purred from behind her, amusement coating every syllable. "She always looks at me like that, little prince. Like she remembers."
Kael's jaw flexed. His wings tightened, feathers shivering with restrained violence.
But instead of lashing out, he drew Amelia closer — so close her forehead brushed his collarbone.
"You're shaking," he whispered.
"I'm not afraid," she said, though it wasn't entirely true.
"Not of him," Kael agreed quietly. "Of what you feel."
Her breath hitched.
Because he was right.Because she wasn't just drawn to Kael.She wasn't just bound to The Devourer.She was something in-between, and the pull was tearing her apart.
The Devourer moved then — slow, deliberate, a predator circling prey he already owned.
"You can't protect her from me," he murmured, voice like velvet cutting over steel. "You can only delay the inevitable."
Kael turned slightly, shielding her with his wings, a soft rustle of feathers whispering like a warning.
"Touch her," he said, voice deadly soft, "and I will tear you apart."
The Devourer smiled. Not cruelly — knowingly.
"You already tried."
A pulse rolled through the air — ancient, familiar, dark.Amelia felt it in her bones.
Her vision blurred.Her heartbeat stuttered.The world tilted—
And suddenly she was somewhere else.
Not physically.Not fully.
But she saw something.
Kael — bathed in sunlight, younger, softer, eyes bright with devotion.And The Devourer — not monstrous, not shadowed, but whole, radiant, a celestial equal beside him.
And herself—
Amelia gasped.
She wasn't Amelia.Not in the memory.Not in the echo.
She was—
"Enough," Kael snarled, yanking her back to the present, wings wrapping fully around her as if to cage her against reality. "You don't get to show her that."
The Devourer's voice dipped, lower, almost gentle.
"She needs to remember what she was to us."
Kael's grip tightened.
"She doesn't belong to you anymore."
The Devourer looked at Amelia — and for once there was no mockery. Only something deep, old, unbearably tender.
"She belonged to both of us," he whispered. "And she will again."
Kael's breath shuddered.
Amelia's heartbeat thundered.
Because she knew — absolutely, instinctively — that what she'd seen wasn't a lie.
She had been theirs.Both of theirs.
And the truth was only just beginning to surface.