Chapter 188: Sia’s POV

“Some things, once broken, do not return to what they were. They become something else entirely.”

The air tasted like memory.

As I walked past the Matron's gate, the last of the thornlight faded behind me and it stuck to my throat. I couldn't see for a second. Couldn’t hear. Couldn’t breathe.

And then.

“Kai.”

His name left my lips before I saw him.

But the moment I did.

I ran.

He was crushed next to a broken pillar of starlight, with ash strewn all over his flesh and the mark on his chest faintly glowing. It seemed like he hadn't breathed in a long time.

“Kai!” I knelt down next to him and held his face in my hands. “Hey—hey, come back to me—”

His eyes fluttered.

And then opened.

And for a heartbeat.

He didn’t recognize me.

Then the air shuddered.

And his voice broke through. Rough. Cracked. Terrified.

“…Sia?”

I nodded, tears spilling. “Yes. I’m here. I came back.”

His hand moved slowly, like lifting it took all the strength he had. It touched my cheek, thumb brushing just under my eye.

“You… you found me.”

“I’ll always find you.”

He smiled.

But it wasn’t full.

Something was wrong.

I helped him sit up, my hand never leaving his chest. His body trembled with each breath. As if something inside him hadn’t finished healing — or had healed wrong.

“What happened?” I asked softly. “What did the Divide do to you?”

His eyes dropped.

“I saw everything,” he whispered. “Every version of myself that could have destroyed us. I saw… her too.”

“Elira?”

He nodded once.

“She told me I still belong to her. And the worst part?”

I waited.

“I believed her. For a second. I believed her.”

I leaned into him, forehead against his. “Then I’m glad you chose to come back.”

“I didn’t,” he said quietly.

I froze.

He met my eyes, shame rippling through his features.

“I was forced through. The gate pushed me out. I was going to stay. I thought you needed a world with one of us left behind.”

I cupped his face again.

“I don’t want a world without you, Kai. Neither does Solara.”

His lips parted.

And then—

He said the one thing I wasn’t prepared for.

“Who?”

I blinked.

“Solara,” I said.

He blinked back.

The confusion didn’t fade.

“Solara…” he repeated, slowly, like it was unfamiliar.

“You remember her,” I said. “You have to. Our daughter.”

Something inside me went cold.

He frowned, trying—struggling—to remember.

“I saw fire,” he said. “I saw a throne. I saw… a name, but I don’t think it was hers.”

“What name?”

He winced. “Amarenthe.”

My blood ran cold.

“That’s… my name,” I whispered. “Or it was.”

Kai shook his head.

“No. In my vision, Amarenthe was the child.”

There was a long silence between us.

Two versions.

Two truths.

Only one reality.

The Divide hadn’t let us return as we were.

It had rewritten us both.

We sat in quiet for what felt like hours or minutes. Time still bent strangely around us. Eventually, I pressed my head to his shoulder.

I said, "I don't know what this means." "But we're not done yet.” There’s more. I feel it.”

Kai nodded slowly.

And then.

The ground shook under our feet.

A pulse went through the room. Not from within the Divide.

But beyond it.

From the waking world.

From above.

We stood quickly, the last of our strength fueled by instinct.

And then we saw it.

A fracture in the sky.

Not like a crack.

Like a mouth.

Opening.

Revealing stars that didn’t belong to this realm.

And a voice.

Smooth. Heavy. Feminine.

Older than the Moon.

“You stole her from me.”

Kai staggered.

I gripped his hand.

A silhouette emerged through the fracture.

She had no face. Only a crown of shadow and teeth made of glass.

She moved like a queen.

But the ground wept beneath her steps.

“You are not the Moon,” I whispered.

“No,” she replied. “I am what the Moon tried to kill. The sister she buried. The night that remembers.”

Her voice scraped against my bones.

“I am the first mother. And I have come to reclaim the daughter you were never meant to keep.”

“No,” I said, stepping in front of Kai. “Solara is ours.”

“She is not Solara,” the goddess said. “She is the fracture. The heir. She is mine.”

The air split.

And in the space between her fingers.

A heartbeat echoed.

Not Solara’s.

But something deeper.

Older.

A power I could barely comprehend.

And in that moment.

Kai whispered.

“…I think she’s right.”

I turned on him. “What?”

His voice trembled.

“When I saw Amarenthe… I don’t think she was ours. Not really. I think she came through us.”

I staggered.

“No,” I whispered. “Don’t say that.”

But the goddess smiled.

“One of you must die for her to awaken.”

We didn’t speak.

We didn’t breathe.

We just stared at her.

And the impossible truth between us.

She raised her hand.

And from the ground.

A blade grew.

Thorned. Silver. Forged of prophecy.

It shimmered.

And pointed at me.