Chapter One: The Dream That Wasn’t a Dream

The stars wept in colors she couldn’t name.

They spiraled around her, golden and violet ribbons of light twisting in an endless dance across the darkened sky. The air shimmered with cosmic dust, weightless and slow, drifting in currents unseen. Everything around her felt vast and endless, as if she had stepped beyond time itself, into a realm where the universe whispered its secrets in a language she had once known.

But she didn’t know it now.

Aria turned, searching for something—someone.

Then, the shadows moved.

A figure stood at the edge of the void, just beyond the reach of the starlight. Tall and still, he was a silhouette carved from the abyss itself, his form barely distinguishable from the darkness surrounding him. And yet, she felt his presence as though it had been stitched into the very fabric of her being.

A cold shiver ran down her spine. Not from fear—but from something deeper, something nameless and ancient.

She should have run.

But she couldn’t.

Because somewhere, in the part of her mind that existed beyond logic and reason, she knew him.

The void rippled as he stepped forward, the space around him bending with his presence. The closer he came, the more her body trembled—not in terror, but in something raw and unfamiliar.

And then, he spoke.

“Aria.”

Her breath caught.

The name—her name—was more than a sound. It was a vow, a whisper of something lost and found in the same moment. The way he said it made her stomach twist, like a song she had forgotten but still knew the melody to.

The air between them crackled, alive with something unseen, something powerful. His voice felt like an echo of a dream she had long since woken from.

She swallowed hard, her lips parting, though she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. His face remained shrouded in shadow, but the shape of him, the way he stood—she knew him. She knew him.

“Who—” Her voice faltered. “Who are you?”

The shadows around him stirred.

For a moment, he said nothing. His expression—though blurred by darkness—seemed to fracture, as if her question had struck something deep within him.

“You don’t remember.” It wasn’t a question.

The ache in his voice made her chest tighten, but she didn’t understand why.

“I—” She shook her head. The words wouldn’t come.

A flicker of gold wove between them, delicate strands of light stretching toward him, as if the stars themselves wanted to bridge the space between them. His gaze flickered downward, watching as the threads wove through the air, glowing softly against his fingertips.

He lifted a hand.

The moment his fingers brushed against the golden light, something shifted.

A surge of warmth bloomed in Aria’s chest, overwhelming, intoxicating, and unbearably familiar. Images flashed in her mind—half-formed memories that slipped through her grasp like water.

Laughter in the dark. A voice calling her name. A touch that burned and soothed all at once.

And a promise.

A promise that had been torn from the stars themselves.

Her heart pounded. She took a step forward, reaching for him.

“Wait—”

The abyss shattered.

Light—blinding and merciless—erupted between them, fracturing the sky. The golden threads unraveled, torn apart by unseen hands. The stars flickered, their brilliance turning cold and hollow.

The man’s expression twisted with raw desperation.

“No—” His voice cracked. He reached for her, fingers stretching toward hers, but the space between them was already collapsing.

Aria’s breath left her lungs in a sharp gasp as something unseen pulled her backward, away from him, away from the only thing that felt real.

The universe itself was tearing them apart.

She fought against it, struggling, reaching—don’t let go, don’t let go—but the light swallowed him whole.

And then—

Nothing.

No stars. No voice calling her name.

Only silence.

Aria awoke with a sharp inhale, her chest rising and falling in frantic, uneven breaths. Her fingers clenched the sheets, her body trembling with the force of something she couldn’t understand.

The room was dark, but the dream—no, the memory—was still burning behind her eyes.

She pressed a hand to her chest, trying to steady herself, but her heart was hammering against her ribs. The sensation of reaching for something—someone—who was no longer there left an unbearable emptiness inside her.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

It was just a dream.

And yet, as she sat there in the quiet of her room, staring into the darkness, she could still feel the ghost of his presence. A warmth that lingered in her bones, refusing to fade.

Somewhere, in a place she no longer knew, he was still reaching for her.

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