Chapter 199: Everlasting Flame

Chapter 199: Everlasting Flame
Adira’s POV

But initially, it wasn't warm. It was a sharp, clear memory. The sort that burnt like truth and pierced like frost. Paths of fire intertwined between the stars as they erupted across the sky. Every spark beat with a heartbeat that wasn't just mine.

The gate had been opened by Ash.

And now I had, too.

Everywhere we looked, our pasts flowed in all directions like rivers of fire. I saw the echoes of hands we had clasped, things we had spoken in the dark, and fights we had waged.

"Don't forget me," I said in his ear, my voice young and terrified.

"I never could," he said in a voice I heard.

Then there was a gentle, holy silence.

Something old and observing raised an inquiry in the light.

"Would you pick her once more?"

The realm hesitated.

Everybody held their breath.

I walked over to Ash.

He was standing across from me, his hand trembling slightly, his eyes full of stars.

He also didn't think twice.

"Yes," he said. All her incarnations. Every time.

Around us, the flame broke.

Bent after that.

After that, it blossomed.

His and my lights started to gravitate toward one another as if gravity had finally determined that we should be together rather than apart. As if the stars were holding a melody they had been waiting a thousand years to sing, the realm itself started to hum.

We took a step closer.

Not as a protector and queen.

Not as a flame and vessel.

But as Adira and Ash.

He was the first to reach out.

I felt everything as his hand contacted mine.

The suffering. The affection. The fire.

The decision.

There was always an option.

And we had both made the same decision.

I said, "I'm no longer a queen."

Ash grinned. "All right. The crown was never my favourite. Only you.

All around us, the air shimmered. Like little suns, sparks rose from our flesh and spiralled skyward. The realm became so much brighter that it was hard to distinguish between him and me.

Beyond the brightness came a strong wind.

Then huge, glowing wings swept across the sky.

The phoenix had made a second appearance.

This time, however, it moved gently about us as a witness rather than a guide.

The stars lowered themselves.

They flickered reverently, one by one, bending toward the horizon.

Then they began to sing.

A sound older than a flame, deeper than a word. It swept across the heavens like joyous thunder, like the very pulse of creation. It filled us, and it filled the realm.

Ash drew me closer, pressing his forehead against mine.

"We succeeded," he said.

"No," I said quietly. "We turned into it."

We were no longer only a part of the flame.

The flame was us.

Whole, bound, and eternal.

A final promise was whispered by the stars, interwoven with quiet and brightness.

"Allow the Flame Eternal to start."

A forgotten spark sparked in the farthest corner of the sky, alone, unseen, and observing.