Chapter Eight: Echoes in the Rain
The rain hadn't stopped since Rael left.
Eli stood in the apartment kitchen, staring blankly at the kettle as it began to boil. Steam curled upward like smoke, like breath in cold air—fragile, fading. He hadn't said more than a handful of words to Mira before fleeing the bookstore, claiming a headache. That wasn't entirely untrue.
His head throbbed with questions, with memories that didn't belong to him. And that name again—Rael. Spoken aloud, it vibrated through him like a forgotten chord finally struck.
He poured the water too quickly, spilling some onto the counter, but didn't care.
What had he seen back there?
Not a hallucination. Not a dream.
A memory.
One he shouldn't have.
He gripped the edge of the sink, knuckles white. He needed answers, but none of them made sense. A stranger who knew his name, who spoke as if they shared a history... and the most terrifying part was that something inside him believed it.
Eli didn't believe in fate. Or destiny. He believed in facts, in logic. But logic had no place in the feeling that bloomed in his chest when Rael looked at him.
Familiar. Powerful. Undeniable.
He barely slept that night.
---
Elsewhere, under the cover of rain and fog, Rael stood before an ancient door hidden in an alley no human ever noticed. He pressed his palm to the center, murmuring a word lost to time.
The door opened, revealing stone steps that descended into darkness.
It had begun.
The moment Eli saw that memory—however small—it had set something in motion. Forces that had waited in silence were stirring again. Not just Rael.
Others.
Rael's expression hardened.
He would face them all if he had to.
Because this time, he would not lose Eli.
Not again.
---
Chapter Nine: Signs and Shadows
By morning, the storm had quieted, but the world didn't feel any calmer.
Eli stepped out onto the street, hoodie pulled over his head, earbuds in—trying to block out the world, and especially his thoughts. But the city felt different today. As if the rain had washed something awake.
People moved like shadows. The sky hung too low.
And everywhere he turned, Eli caught flashes—faces he didn't recognize watching him for too long, murmurs that fell silent when he passed, a flicker of gold in someone's eyes that vanished when he looked again.
He told himself he was being paranoid.
Until he saw the symbol.
Drawn in charcoal across the brick wall outside the bookstore's alley—an ancient mark, circular, made of lines he didn't understand but that made his heart race anyway.
He backed away from it instinctively.
"Eli?" Mira's voice snapped him out of it, and he quickly plastered on a smile, pretending he hadn't just stared into the past.
"Yeah, sorry. Zoned out."
She eyed him curiously but didn't push.
But Eli couldn't stop thinking about it.
That symbol. It meant something.
He just didn't know what.
Not yet.