---
Elara's POV
I barely had time to breathe.
One step out of the labyrinth and the ink beneath my feet began to swirl, thickening like liquid emotion. The book fluttered open mid-air, glowing gold—then crimson.
The system's voice echoed, this time deeper. More solemn.
> "Trial Three: The Binding of the Heart. What you feel may not be yours. What binds may break. Proceed."
And just like that—I was plunged into another world.
---
The scenery changed.
I stood in a forest of memories. Giant trees made of paper, their bark written with past feelings—some mine, some foreign. Each leaf whispered a name, a longing, a betrayal.
The wind blew regret.
And waiting for me at the center of it all… were all three.
Caelum. Lucien. Soren.
But something was off.
They weren't themselves.
Not entirely.
They looked like versions of them drawn from my heart.
---
Caelum looked softer. Not icy. His usually cold blue eyes were a storm of worry.
"Elara," he said. "Why didn't you come sooner?"
"What?"
"You left me there," he said, voice cracking. "You said you'd protect us. You promised—"
His words stabbed into my chest like needles.
But I never made that promise.
Did I?
I turned.
Lucien stood beside a willow of fluttering pages, holding a letter soaked in blood.
"I bled for you," he said. "Again and again. And all you did was choose him."
"Choose who?" I asked, heart racing. "What is this?"
"You never loved me," he whispered. "You just wrote me in."
---
Soren didn't speak.
He stepped out of the shadows, smirk gone. His eyes were hollow.
He held a pen—my pen—and with a flick of his wrist, he rewrote a memory.
I watched a new scene unfold:
I was smiling at him, hands clasped in his.
Saying, "I trust you more than anyone."
But it never happened.
I never said that.
Still, the memory existed now.
Because he wrote it.
"You're not the only one with ink now," Soren said. "You gave me this power the moment you opened the book."
---
I panicked.
Was this still a trial… or a warning?
Each boy stepped closer, emotions swirling around me—love, anger, grief, obsession. And suddenly, glowing strings emerged from their chests.
All three... tied to mine.
The Binding Thread.
> "What binds the heart... may one day strangle the soul."
A timer began to tick above the book.
I had to choose one thread. Only one.
If I chose wrong—
One would fade.
One would turn.
One would become my end.
And the villain… was among them.
---
But before I could choose—
Everything froze.
A fourth voice echoed—chilling, calm, and cruel:
> "She doesn't need to choose. Not yet."
A shadowed figure stepped out.
Face half-covered. Cloak of ink. Eyes that shimmered like rewritten fate.
> "Let's raise the stakes, shall we?"
And he touched the book.
The entire world collapsed into ink—
And I was falling again.
---
End of Chapter 19