Silence.
A silence so deep it felt like the ruins themselves were holding their breath.
Rene felt it too—that shift in the air, the weight of a truth just out of reach. Adrian and Adriel were still standing stiffly, their silver and black eyes locked onto the Watcher, but now their power wasn't just restless.
It was unstable.
Lucien's voice cut through the quiet, sharp and deliberate. "You're saying there was someone before you?"
Adrian didn't look at him.
"She wasn't just before us." His jaw tightened, his fingers clenching at his sides. "She was everything we were supposed to be."
Rene's breath caught.
Supposed to be.
"You were a replacement," Nyra said slowly, piecing it together. "A second attempt."
Adriel exhaled shakily. "A failed one."
Something twisted in Rene's chest.
She had always known Adrian and Adriel were different. Stronger than they should be, colder than most, yet still bound to her—always hers.
But now…
Now she realized why.
They were never meant to be whole.
The Watcher finally spoke, their voice unreadable. "You were not failures."
Adrian's head snapped up, and for the first time, his composure cracked.
"Then why was she erased?" His voice was raw, filled with something dangerously close to grief. "Why were we made to forget her?"
The Watcher didn't answer.
Instead, they lifted a single hand.
And the ruins responded.
The stone beneath them pulsed with an unnatural energy, symbols igniting along the ground. A deep, resonating hum filled the air, vibrating in Rene's bones.
Then—
A memory unraveled before them.
The ruins flickered—then shifted.
The jagged stone walls were no longer broken. The ground beneath them wasn't ancient and crumbling.
Instead, the image of a grand hall stretched out before them.
Tall pillars. Banners of silver and black. A throne at the far end, standing beneath an unlit sky.
And at the center of it all—
A girl.
She stood alone, her long silver hair cascading down her back like liquid light. Her presence was quiet yet commanding, her silver-black eyes glowing faintly.
She looked so much like Adrian and Adriel—like a missing piece of them.
But it wasn't just her presence that made Rene's breath hitch.
It was the fact that she was looking right at them.
As if she knew they were watching.
As if she remembered.
Adriel exhaled sharply. "Sister."
The girl smiled softly.
Then—
She spoke.
"I wondered how long it would take for you to return."
The ruins flickered again. The memory shifted, distorted—
And then it shattered.
Rene barely had time to process it before Adrian moved.
He lunged at the Watcher, his power flaring wildly. "Where is she?!"
But the Watcher merely stepped back, unbothered by the outburst.
"She is where she has always been," they said, voice eerily calm.
Adriel's fists clenched. "And where is that?"
The Watcher tilted their head.
And then—
In a voice that sent chills down Rene's spine—
"She is where keys are always kept."
The answer settled like ice in Rene's veins.
Because there was only one place a key would be kept.
Locked away.
Hidden.
Sealed in a place no one was meant to reach.
Rene's heart pounded.
"She's inside the door."
And just like that—
Everything changed.
To Be Continued…