The house wouldn't let her have him, the moment Elias pulled away, the air thickened, charged with something angry, Possessive, The walls trembled, the floor beneath them groaning as if the very bones of the manor were protesting.
Sera's chest heaved, her lips still tingling from his kiss,That wasn't just a kiss,It was a claim, A memory, A warning.
Elias exhaled slowly, his silver eyes stormy with frustration, His hands still lingered at her waist, his body tense,like he was fighting himself.
Sera swallowed hard. "What does it want?"
His jaw clenched,"You,"
Before Sera could respond, a sound rippled through the manor, A soft, distant humming.
She turned toward the source a door at the far end of the hall, She could swear it hadn't been there before. The handle gleamed silver in the candlelight, a twisting pattern of roses and thorns etched into its surface.
Sera shivered, The house was leading her somewhere ,Luring her.
Elias's grip on her wrist tightened.
"Sera. Don't."
She met his gaze, something dark and unreadable swimming in his expression,A warning, A plea.
But something inside her whispered that she had been here before.
That she had opened this door once.
And that what lay beyond it would give her the truth she was aching to remember.
So she turned the handle,The moment she stepped inside, the temperature dropped.
The room was lavish, intimate, Midnight-blue walls lined with towering bookshelves, a fireplace that should have been long-dead but still crackled with warmth, A grand, four-poster bed loomed at the center its sheets deep emerald, embroidered with the same pattern of roses and thorns as the door.
And on the vanity, covered in a fine layer of dust,A hairbrush, A silver mirror,A perfume bottle she had seen before.
Sera's breath caught,This was her room Not in this life,Not in this time,But it had once been hers.
Elias stepped inside behind her, his presence a force against her back.
Sera reached out, fingers trembling as she picked up the perfume bottle,The scent of jasmine and winter frost curled through the air familiar.
A memory surged forward, unbidden, crashing over her like a wave, A version of herself in a long, flowing nightgown, sitting at the vanity as Elias stood behind her, his fingers trailing over her bare shoulders. Their reflections met in the mirror.
His lips brushed against her neck.
She had gasped, shivering, tilting her head to give him better access,Sera clutched the perfume bottle tight, her chest rising and falling fast.
She turned to Elias, her voice barely above a whisper,"This was real, wasn't it?"
His silver eyes softened,"Yes."
She stepped closer, the past weaving itself between them, blurring the lines of what was real and what had been lost.
She had belonged to him,And maybe… she still did.
Elias's fingers brushed her cheek, hesitant, as if afraid she would pull away,But she didn't.
She leaned into him, her body betraying every logical thought in her mind.
She should be questioning him, She should be running from this house, from him.
Instead, she whispered, "Then why did I forget?"
Pain flickered across his face. "Because I made you."
Sera's breath hitched.
Before she could demand answers, before she could pull him closer or push him away, the fireplace flickered,then roared, fire bursting unnaturally high.
The scent of smoke and roses filled the air, And from the shadows, something whispered her name.