CHAPTER 12 – THE LOST PARADISE

The kiss was an abyss.

A portal.

A key to what was and to what should never have been forgotten.

When Raviel’s lips touched Evangelina’s, the universe collapsed into golden light.

Everything disappeared.

The elevator.

The city.

The storm.

The ground ceased to exist beneath her feet.

Her body floated, wrapped in warm, infinite energy.

Time had no shape.

And then, the world was reborn before her eyes.

Evangelina opened her eyes with a choked gasp.

She was no longer in the darkness of the elevator.

She was in a place no human being could imagine.

🌿 Beneath her feet, a crystalline floor reflected the golden sky, as if the universe were drawn on water.

🌺 All around, gardens of impossible flowers spread across floating hills, where rivers of light meandered through trees that looked made of stars.

🌅 The sky was an unreal amber tone, and in the distance, marble towers floated like fragments of a forgotten Eden.

It was paradise.

Or at least, what was left of it.

And there, standing before her, was Raviel in all his splendor.

His skin seemed sculpted from celestial light, his black hair fluttered in the ethereal breeze, and his golden eyes were even more intense in this realm where divinity and damnation intertwined.

His wings were fully spread—majestic, radiant—with a subtle glow reflecting off his skin.

—Welcome back. —his voice was an echo, a melody lost in time.

Evangelina placed a hand over her chest. Her heart beat wildly.

—Where… are we?

Raviel stepped forward, his steps silent, as if his mere existence floated between dimensions.

—In the place where it all began. —he whispered.

Evangelina swallowed hard.

—Heaven?

He looked at her in silence, with that intensity that burned and froze at the same time.

—Not exactly.

And then, the memories struck her like lightning.

✨ A forbidden love…

✨ A betrayal that changed everything…

✨ A fall…

Her body trembled.

Because she had already been here before.

Because she knew him.

Because he wasn’t lying when he said he had been searching for her for centuries.

And when her consciousness returned to the present, her lips still burned…

But not in the elevator.

In another time, in another place… where she and Raviel had already belonged to each other.

⸻

The wind in the celestial palace blew with an unreal softness, as if even the breeze were made of light.

Evangelina still felt the fire on her lips, the echo of the kiss that had changed everything.

Her legs trembled.

Her heart beat fiercely.

The images she had seen in her mind still burned within her soul.

Raviel had not moved.

He remained standing before her, imposing, his wings still open, his aura radiating an indescribable energy.

He was beautiful, terrifying, infinite.

But his gaze was not on her face.

It was on her chest.

Evangelina felt a chill as his golden eyes fixed on the small medallion hanging from her neck.

Her trembling hand instinctively reached for the pendant, feeling its cold surface against her skin.

—Do you know where that’s from? —his voice was a deep whisper, like a secret torn from the universe.

Evangelina blinked, confused.

—My… my medallion?

Raviel slowly raised his hand, without touching her, as if looking at something sacred… or cursed.

—You’ve always worn it.

She lowered her gaze, running her fingers over the medallion. It had always been there, for as long as she could remember.

—I’ve had it since I was a baby… —her voice was faint, like puzzle pieces her mind could not yet fit together—. My parents gave it to me when they found me on the beach… lost.

A frozen silence fell between them.

Evangelina looked up.

—I’m adopted.

Raviel closed his eyes for a moment, exhaling slowly. As if those words were a dagger to his chest.

As if he had heard them before.

As if he had always known.

—You weren’t lost. —he whispered, his voice heavy with something unfathomable—. You were hidden.

Evangelina felt her heart stop.

—What…?

Raviel raised his hand, and without warning, took the medallion between his fingers.

The touch sent an electric shock through Evangelina’s entire body.

The world trembled.

And before she could react…

🔥 Everything exploded in light. 🔥

Because in that instant, with Raviel’s touch on the medallion, the forbidden memories began to surface.