Page 62 of Shadowkissed

I don’t see her clearly at first. Just pieces. A flash of violet eyes. A laugh that aches in my ribs. A hand brushing mine—barely touching—and it feels likefire.My chest tightens. I know this feeling. Thiscraving.

She’s standing at the edge of something endless. Wind whips her hair around her shoulders, long and black and shimmering with strands of silver like night’s been woven into it. She’s facing away from me. But I know it’s her.

Even without a name. Even without the memory.

“Hey!” I call out, stepping forward.

She doesn’t turn. She’s fading. And I can’t lose her again.

“Wait!” I yell, louder now. Desperate.

She pauses.

Half-turns.

And her eyes?—

Gods.

Her eyes find mine like they’ve been waiting for this moment. Like some thread between us has snapped tight again.

And when I speak, it’s not a question. It’s atruthrising from the deepest part of me.

“…Liora.”

The dreamcracks.A bolt of light slams through my chest like I’ve been struck by lightning. And I wake up almost howling.

I jolt upright, gasping, heart punching against my ribs like it’s trying to break out.

I feel heat radiating from my skin, sparks crackling in my fingertips. My tattoos—scars, mostly—glow.Faint, but unmistakable. Like something in my blood just woke the hell up.

“What the fuck,” I breathe, voice rasped and wrecked.

My hand trembles as I reach for the pendant from the Guardian box.

It’s hot. Like it’s been sitting in fire.

The air in the loft ischargednow. My shadows—the ones I never fully learned to command—curl around my feet like they recognize something ancient just bled through the cracks.

And through it all, one name keeps echoing in my skull.

Liora.

Liora.

Her name wasn’t just in my dream. It wasmine.

Mine to know. Mine to say. Mine toprotect.

She’s real. Shewashere. Shelovedme and I loved her.

And I let someone take that from me.

Suddenly, all my old schooling comes racing back to me as I try and sort through my memories.

A spell.

It has to be a fucking memory spell.

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