Chapter 7 #2
This time, I found her inside the labyrinth. Sealed inside, the walls closing in. No magic. Only tiny blades for defense. I’d hidden things then. My exhaustion, the rot of my insecurities under my skin. I’d thought I was helping her by keeping it all to myself.
She watched me. All the time. With so much love it made my heart bleed.
Why hadn’t I seen that she wore a mask of strength to help me? I could’ve held her, told her that what she was then and now would always be enough.
“We were both pretending to be stronger than we are. Both of us carrying burdens we thought would break the other person if we shared them.”
I stared at the shard that had shown me our shared deception.
“You watched me with so much love, and I was too blind to see you were drowning too.” My chest tightened with the realization.
“All this time, you’ve needed me to be honest about my weakness so you could stop pretending to be invincible as well. ”
The glass crunched beneath my boots as I turned away from the memory. “We could’ve held each other up instead of carrying it all alone.”
Another shard rose in front of me, and I cupped it in my hands.
In this one, she sat alone on the tower roof, her face bowed, her arms wrapped around her bent knees, whispering. “I'm not strong enough for this. He’s slowly dying, and I can’t hold it back.” Her voice splintered. “I'll fail him, just like I’ve failed everyone else.”
She sobbed, curling tighter, still holding the weight of us both on her back.
“No, Reyla. Please. All those nights you sat alone, thinking you weren't enough.” Her broken words echoed in my ears. “While I slept, you carried my dying body and your breaking heart.”
My hands dropped to my thighs. “You measured your worth by whether you could save me, and I never told you—” I squeezed my eyes shut before opening them again.
“I never told you that loving me was all I’ll truly ever need.
You don't have to be strong enough to stop death, Wildfire.
You only have to be brave enough to love me while we're both still breathing.”
We hadn’t lost. No matter what happened, we’d already won.
The sky heaved overhead, lavender clouds churning through the red, until a single beam of golden light shot through, striking a mirrored shard at the heart of it all.
The final piece?
I moved toward it.
This one looked different than the rest. There was no shimmer, no fractured light. Only a soft, steady thrum of a heartbeat trying not to fail.
I crouched, my hand trembling as I reached for it.
The world around me melted into nothing, then reformed. She sat on the sofa in our sitting area, with the fire sparking and snapping in the grate beyond the low table. She’d placed the two talismans on the wooden surface in front of her, and her hand hovered over them.
With a groan, she dropped her head. Her hand settled on her thigh.
“What if I’m not enough?” she asked no one.
The crumbling sound of her voice ripped through me worse than a scream. I’d heard her shout in battle. Laugh at the stars. Whisper love against my throat. But I’d never heard her like this.
“What if I lose him because I wasn’t clever enough? Fast enough? Strong enough?” Her voice cracked. Her hands clenched her knees, and she stared at the fire as if it would give her an answer.
“I’m trying,” she said. “By the fates, I am trying.” Her shoulders curled, and she covered her face with both hands. Sobs shook her spine.
Her hands dropped to her sides. “I’ll give myself in place of him.” Her voice shook. “I was born with nothing. He gave me a reason to become something. If that costs me everything, then so be it. Let me be the one to burn. As long as he gets to stand in the light.”
As the weight of her words sank into my bones, the shard burned my fingers. But I held tight.
Reyla’s kind of love didn’t ask questions.
It didn’t hesitate. It sacrificed like she had when Prager attacked.
She'd used her own shadow, and Prager had twisted the spell and sent it back at her.
Perhaps the labyrinth did take. Whatever it took from her gave Prager the opening she needed to hurt Reyla.
She’d bled herself into every shard, and what remained was whole, but barely. While I was a man stitched back together again from her love, made real by her fire. Losing her would mean losing the only truth I’d ever believed in, the kind that didn’t answer to the fates or destiny.
It hurt to watch someone acknowledge that they'd die for their love. Yet I would sacrifice everything to do the same for her.
I’d thought she was invincible. I’d believed she was fire incarnate, sent to carry me through the dark. But here she was, praying to survive the weight of me. And still, she bore it. Alone.
Reyla had fought the curse, the talismans, and even Prager, and she still wondered if she was enough.
When the shard slipped from my fingers, I staggered back, a choked breath rising up my throat.
“You’ve always been enough. I’m the one who couldn’t see it.
But I’m here now, my heart bared, and I do see all of you now.
I’m ready to bear your burdens.” Tipping my head back, I shouted.
“Let me save you back. You were never meant to break for me.”
I stood in the center of the fractured landscape, surrounded by the pieces of her pain, and felt the truth settle into my bones.
“Every shard,” I said, turning slowly to take in the glittering fragments scattered around me. “Every memory. Every moment where you bled and no one stayed to bandage the wounds.”
My voice grew stronger, carrying across the broken realm.
“But I'm staying, love. Through every memory, every fear, every piece of your beautiful, wounded heart.” I spread my arms wide, addressing the altered world that held her essence.
“You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be unbreakable. You just have to be you.”
The air hummed with magic and the weight of promises I was finally ready to make.
The shards I'd touched began to sing, a low, haunting melody that vibrated through my bones. One by one, they lifted from the ground, spinning slowly as they rose. Light caught their smooth surfaces, throwing rainbows across the broken landscape.
The fragments circled overhead like falling stars. The shard holding her childhood pain glowed soft blue. The memory of Kinart's death pulsed deep red. The violation of her magic burned white-hot with fury.
My breath caught as they began to drift toward something I hadn't noticed before, a carved wooden frame standing off to the side. Ancient symbols etched along its sides sparked to life, recognizing the returning pieces of her soul.
“That's it,” I breathed, not daring to move. “It must be how I’ll find you.”
The first shard settled into place with a sound like a bell. Then another. Each piece that clicked home sent ripples of warmth through the fractured realm. I watched, transfixed, as her story rebuilt itself, not just the pain, but the strength that came from surviving it.
My hands trembled. If I moved wrong, if I disturbed the magic weaving her back together, I might lose her forever. The final shard, the one holding her desperate love and sacrifice, hovered for a heartbeat before sliding into place with a chime that shook the air.
Once solid, the image on its surface flickered, and I saw my wildfire. The real Reyla, whole yet still fractured. Worn from battle, lips chapped, scars on her arms, tears streaking paths down her cheeks.
But her eyes… Those were still aflame. The queen of flames.
My Reyla.
“Lore,” her voice echoed from the mirror’s depths. “If you’re here…”
My heart stuttered.
“I am.” I pressed my palm against the glass.
“I’m right here, love. Always. I looked, and I saw it all, Wildfire.
There is nothing you can say or do that would make me flinch.
I will kneel before every broken part of you and swear my love to it.
You are my beginning and my undoing, and I choose you anyway. ”
I shifted closer to her fractured reflection. “Do you understand what that means?” My voice dropped. “It means I choose your nightmares along with your dreams. Your weaknesses along with your strengths. Every broken piece and every blazing moment.”
My forehead touched the cool surface of the mirror.
“It means I'd rather burn with you than live safely without you. I will carry your pain because there’s no reason for you to shoulder it alone.” I pulled back to meet her eyes through the glass.
“Choosing you means choosing to love without conditions, without fear, without holding anything back, and I do.”
My breath fogged the mirror's surface. “I know what loving you costs, Wildfire. I've seen every memory, every wound, every reason you have to guard your heart. And I'm telling you it's worth it. You're worth it. Worth the risk, worth the fear, worth everything.”
I traced the outline of her face on the glass.
“I’m here with you. You’ll never have to bear anything else alone.”