CHAPTER 13 – THE TRUTH IN HIS EYES

The elevator existed again.

Reality reassembled itself slowly, as if they had returned from another realm, but something in the air was different. Thicker. Charged.

Evangelina blinked.

She was still trapped between his arms. Still trembling.

But she was no longer the same.

What she had just seen had pierced her like an invisible wound.

—What was that? —she whispered, her voice breaking—. Was it real?

Raviel looked at her. Silence. His golden eyes gleamed with a dangerous calm.

—That was only a part of the truth —he replied.

—Who… am I? —she stepped back just a few centimeters—. Why were you with me when I was just a child? Why me?

He lowered his gaze. A shadow of pain crossed his face, and for a second, he looked human. Vulnerable.

A tear slid down his cheek.

—Do you want more answers?

Evangelina nodded, even though fear gripped her chest.

—Have you heard stories… about angels and humans?

She gave a nervous smile.

—Those are just fairy tales. Myths they tell children…

Raviel smiled too, but his smile wasn’t sweet. It was melancholic. Painful.

—Humans invented those myths to soothe their fears. Because when they don’t understand something… they’d rather call it impossible.

Evangelina swallowed hard.

—And you…? What are you?

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he stepped closer to her with a movement so soft, so ethereal, it was as if the floor no longer belonged to him.

His body surrounded hers without touching her. His hands went to the wall, one on each side of her face, trapping her between his breath and his silence.

Evangelina shivered.

The closeness was unbearable.

Not because of fear.

But because of what it awakened in her.

His fingers slowly reached for the pendant hanging from her neck. A golden medallion, warm against her skin.

—You told me before… that you’ve had this medallion since you were a baby.

Evangelina nodded. The touch of his fingers burned her, even though it was only a brush.

—It’s the key —Raviel said in a low voice, almost reverently—. The only one that could lead me to you. The only one that could survive time… and the curse.

—What curse?

He looked at her again, with devastating intensity.

—They separated us. They tore you away from me. For centuries.

—Us…? —her eyes widened—. We were together… before?

Raviel didn’t answer with words.

His hand, still touching the medallion, slowly closed around it.

—They hid you to protect you. But nothing can separate me from you. Not forever.

A shiver ran down Evangelina’s spine.

He looked at her as if her soul was a place he had always longed to return to.

—I’ve crossed dimensions —he whispered—. I’ve fallen from the heavens. I’ve burned in eternal damnation… just to see you again.

The light flickered once more.

And in the midst of shadow and glow, Evangelina knew, without yet understanding how, that nothing would ever be the same again.

Not her world.

Not her body.

Not her soul.