The thorn crown

I woke up alone.

The trees whispered overhead. Morning light leaking through dead branches like fingers.

Kael was gone.

No note. No sound. No heat where he'd been.

Just a faint shimmer in the dirt.

Gold sparks.

Still fading.

I sat up slowly. My clothes still damp from the river. My limbs heavy. Wrong.

"Kael?" I called out.

No answer.

The forest didn't feel silent.

It felt like it was holding its breath.

I stood. Followed the trail. Each glowing footprint like a heartbeat slowing down.

Don't panic, I told myself.

But the farther I walked, the colder the air got.

And the more I felt it.

That presence again.

That soft, hungry nothingness pressing at the edge of my mind.

Then.....

"Ariya."

I stopped.

The voice was behind me.

Close.

Too close.

I turned.

No one.

Only fog.

"You miss him, don't you?" it said, from nowhere and everywhere at once. "You feel it now."

My fists clenched. "You don't know me."

"I do," it whispered. "I've tasted him. And you… oh, you're starting to feel everything, aren't you?"

I bit my lip until I tasted blood.

"Get out of my head."

"But you let me in," it said gently. "When you let him in. He's marked you. Tied you. You belong to each other now."

A shape moved in the mist.

Kael?

No.

Too tall.

Too still.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Because he's the key," the voice purred. "And you...little null girl you're the lock. Together, you burn beautifully."

A shimmer of gold flickered in the trees.

I ran.

The shape didn't follow.

It watched.

That was worse.

I ran until my lungs tore, until the mist began to fade, until I saw him.

Kael.

Kneeling at the edge of a ruined stone circle, head bowed, shaking.

I skidded to a stop.

"Kael?"

He looked up.

His eyes were wrong.

Still gold, but dim. Clouded. Like he wasn't all there.

"I found her," he said. "I saw my sister."

I stepped closer, heart pounding.

"No, you didn't," I whispered. "That thing's in your head. Just like it tried with me."

He blinked.

Frowned.

Like he was waking up.

"It said she missed me."

"She's gone, Kael. That thing is not her."

Silence.

Then he reached for me.

Not gently.

Fingers grasping my wrist, hard.

But there was no threat in his touch.

Only desperation.

"It feels like her," he whispered, voice shaking. "And if it feels real .....how do I fight it?"

I pressed our foreheads together.

Let him breathe me in.

"You don't fight it alone."

And for a moment, the forest exhaled.

The grip loosened.

His eyes cleared.

And I saw him again.

Real.

Raw.

Terrified.

We held each other in the ruins, both shaking.

Not from cold.

But from something worse.

The truth:

If it knows you, it can use you.

And now?

It knew us both.