Amelia crashed onto cold marble.
But it wasn't really marble—it shifted like smoke, hardened like stone, glowing faintly with threads of gold and shadow.
Her head pounded as she pushed herself upright.
She had landed in a world that felt half-born—a place suspended between day and night,a realm carved from the seam of creation.
The Duskfall Realm.
Her realm.
A hand brushed her cheek.
"Careful," Raeth murmured, kneeling in front of her. "This place reacts to your aura. And right now, your aura is… confused."
She jerked away from his touch, heart hammering.
"Where have you taken me?"
Raeth didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he rose with a slow, predatory grace—shadows curling at his feet,silver light highlighting the sharp planes of his face.
"This," he said softly, "is where Solyn was born."
Amelia shivered.
The air itself responded—a ripple of shadowlight rolling through the horizon.
The sky overhead was neither night nor day.A cracked sun bled gold into a rising black moon.Mountains hovered like ghosts.Rivers flowed upward.
It was beautiful.
And terrifying.
"Why am I here?" she whispered.
Raeth looked at her with an expression too soft to be safe.
"Because you broke the seals. Because you remembered me. Because you remembered you."
He stepped closer.
"And because your light half cannot survive what's coming—not unless your dusk half awakens."
Amelia backed up until her spine pressed against a pillar formed of swirling starlight.
"I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to be Serael or Solyn. I just want to be Amelia."
Raeth laughed—quiet, sad, ancient.
"You can't be 'just Amelia' anymore. You carry the power of creation's beginning."His eyes burned."And the curse of its end."
She shook her head violently.
"No. No, Kael said—"
Raeth's expression darkened.
"Ah yes. Kael."
The way he said the name—as if it were a wound.
"He would rather shatter your soul than let you know the truth."
"That's a lie."
Raeth stepped close enough that the air warmed and chilled in one breath.
"Is it?" he whispered.
The sky trembled.
"Kael sealed away half your identity. Half your power. Half your memories. He hid your dusk-name because it tied you to me."
Amelia's heart skipped.
"You're manipulating me."
Raeth smiled—not cruelly, but with a grief so deep it was unbearable.
"I don't need to manipulate you, little light. Your soul remembers me more clearly than your mind does."
His hand lifted slowly, cautiously—giving her time to pull away.
She didn't.
His fingertips brushed her cheek.
A thunderclap of memory erupted behind her eyes—
—two celestial bodies swirling in an eclipse—her hands in his—the promise: I will find you in every lifetime—Kael dragging her away as Raeth screamed her name
She gasped and staggered.
Raeth caught her gently.
"Breathe," he murmured."You're awakening."
Amelia shoved him back, chest heaving.
"No. Stop. I don't want to see—"
But the realm did.
The ground pulsed beneath her feet—two colors spreading from her:
Gold.Black.
Her two halves.
Her two names.
Trying to merge.
Trying to tear her apart.
Raeth's expression sharpened.
"It's starting."
"What is—"
A shockwave blasted outward, splitting the sky.The cracked sun and black moon reeled apart—one dragged toward dawn,one toward night.
Raeth's eyes widened.
"Your light half is rejecting your dusk half," he said urgently. "If they collide wrong—"
She doubled over, screaming as her aura splintered—gold wings ripping from one shoulder,black flame from the other.
Raeth lunged.
"Amelia—listen to me. You have to choose which side to anchor yourself to first. Light or shadow."
"I CAN'T—!" she sobbed.
The realm shook violently.
A portal ripped open behind her—gold fire swirling wildly.
Kael.
His wings flared in fury, his aura incandescent.
"Get away from her, Raeth!"
Raeth barred the path between them, expression cold.
"You're too late."
Kael reached for Amelia—
—but she was already collapsing to her knees, aura ripping itself in two.
"Amelia!" he shouted, voice shaking."Choose the light—take my hand!"
Raeth extended his own.
"Or choose balance. Choose truth. Choose yourself."
Two hands.Two paths.Two destinies.
The world shook—
—and Amelia screamed as both light and shadow erupted through her in a single, impossible burst.
Her decision was made.
But the chapter endsbefore we see which hand she took.