Lucid

CHAPTER 19 - LOVE

For the first time since waking up, I felt it.

Peace.

Not the fleeting kind, not the illusion of calm before another storm—but real, unshakable serenity. It wrapped around me like warmth on a winter morning, sinking into my bones, soothing every ache I had forgotten I carried. My eyes opened, and the world felt different. Clearer. Brighter.

I saw it for what it was—not just a place of endless struggle, not just a battlefield for fate and prophecy. It was a world worth living in.

And I wanted to live in it.

I knew who I was now. Not just the fractured version of myself I had once been, lost between shadows and grief. No, I was whole. I was Ethan Eden.

A Mystic of the Three Primes. Gifted with the Power of Emotional Energy. A Sacrifice. A Resurrection.

The prophesied Catalyst who could have shattered this world. Who almost did.

But instead, I became its Light-Bringer.

And yet, before all of that—before the power, before the destiny—I was something else first.

I was just a kid.

Fifteen years old.

Not ordinary, maybe. But still... someone who could have an ordinary life.

One of love.

***

Celine's golden glow faded, mirroring my own, but for once, I didn't feel empty without it. The light was still there—inside me, woven into my being.

When I met her gaze, I expected awe, maybe even fear. But there was none of that.

Just wonder.

"You keep surprising me, Flash," she said, her voice lighter than I'd ever heard it. "And I guess you always will."

There was relief in her smile, but something else too—something heavier. I saw it now. A weight she carried, made of regret and sorrow, laced with responsibility.

I wished I could read thoughts.

"What now?" I asked.

Celine took a breath. "Both Blue Hawk and Black Coast are compromised. Isabel and her hunters aren't an easy fight—even for you." She hesitated. "But there's a way forward. We need to go to Aurora."

Aurora.

She and her circle spoke of it often. I'd never seen it, never even heard of it before all this, but I knew its importance.

It was the home of a Tree of Light.

"You sure the Tree won't try again?" My voice was even, but deep down, I wasn't sure I wanted the answer.

"No. Your connection is completely severed," she assured me. "It won't take hold again. But being near it might still benefit you."

I frowned. "What happened there?"

Celine turned away, heading toward the kitchen. "Betrayal."

The word hung in the air.

She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a stack of old papers. As she laid them on the table, she spoke.

"Isabel murdered an entire town's worth of opposers just to get what she wanted."

I didn't need to ask what.

The Prophecy.

I hadn't seen it in my memories, but I knew that's what she meant. The thing that started all of this.