Lyra's POV
The lab was quieter that night than it had ever been.
The machines slept. The lights glowed low. And outside, the city hummed like a distant dream Lyra no longer felt part of.
She stood near the console, arms crossed tightly over her chest.
Kael hadn't spoken a word since Professor Hale had declared he needed to go back.
Not a complaint. Not an argument.
He simply sat by the broken core, staring into the circle of flickering blue light, as if willing it to stay open.
"Say something," she finally said.
He didn't.
"Yell at me. Tell me I ruined your life. That I'm a selfish idiot who broke the laws of science."
Still nothing.
She took a shaky step closer. "You're just going to let him send you back?"
At last, he turned.
His golden eyes were no longer bright. They were tired. Heavy. But his voice, when it came, was still calm.
"Do you want me to go?"
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Then swallowed.
"I don't know."
He nodded slowly, like he expected that answer. "But you fear what happens if I stay."
"Not you." Her voice cracked. "What follows you. You said something came through, didn't you?"
He stood. His figure cast a long shadow across the lab.
"Yes. And it will return."
"Then why aren't you afraid?"
Kael smiled — not the charming smile, but something sadder. Softer.
"Because for the first time in my life, I found something I wasn't meant to have. And I don't want to let it go."
---
Kael's POV
The girl who spoke with lightning and equations.
She was shaking.
He hadn't meant to scare her. But truth had teeth, and the truth was: this world was too delicate to hold something like him. Or what hunted him.
He took a step forward. She didn't move.
"I didn't ask to be here," he said quietly. "But I'm glad I came."
She looked up, startled.
"I learned your machines," he continued, "your strange moving carriages, your boxes of glowing pictures. But none of it amazed me as much as... you."
Lyra laughed bitterly. "You don't even know me."
"I know enough." He stepped closer. "You fix broken things. You hide your pain in sarcasm. You pretend not to care, but you do. Deeply."
Her lips trembled. "That doesn't mean anything."
"It means everything."
She turned away. "You're leaving."
"I have to."
She nodded. But her hand gripped the edge of the console like it was the only thing keeping her upright.
"Then go," she whispered. "Before I believe you meant to stay."
---
Later That Night…
The lab slept.
But Lyra didn't.
She tossed under the flickering ceiling fan in her room above the lab, the words "Before I believe you meant to stay" looping in her mind like a curse.
Then—
She jolted up.
Something cold brushed her window.
She ran to it, expecting rain.
But outside—there was no wind. No noise.
Just darkness.
Not night. But a moving darkness.
She leaned closer.
And for just a second — a breath, a blink —
A pair of glowing red eyes stared back at her from the trees.
She screamed.
But when she blinked again… they were gone.
---
Kael's POV
Kael sat in the shadows of the lab, unable to sleep.
And then he heard it — her scream.
He was on his feet in seconds, bolting up the spiral stairs to her room.
She was standing by the window, panting, eyes wide.
"Lyra—"
She pointed. "It was there. Something was out there."
He scanned the trees.
Nothing.
But he felt it. The faint hum of corrupted magic.
"It found me," he whispered. "It crossed the veil."
She grabbed his arm. "What is it?"
Kael looked her dead in the eyes.
"Not what. Who."
"It's called a Wraithborn. A creature that feeds on power between realms. And it's looking for the breach."
He paused. "Which means… it's looking for me."
---
End of Chapter 5