When Theo opened his eyes, he was floating.

No—standing.

He could not tell.

There was no ground beneath his feet, but his body remained upright in an endless black expanse. The darkness was neither hot nor cold. It did not feel empty, exactly.

It felt as though it were waiting.

Theo looked down at himself.

His body was whole.

There was no trembling in his hands. No pain behind his eyes. No lingering fog. For the first time in years, he felt completely still.

“Where am I?”

His voice traveled farther than it should have.

Footsteps answered him.

They echoed across an unseen floor—slow, deliberate, and graceful. The sound reminded him of someone walking through a cathedral at midnight.

A figure emerged from the dark.

She was tall and dressed in black velvet that fell around her like funeral cloth. A sheer veil concealed her face, while lace gloves covered her hands to the wrists.

Theo’s instincts prickled.

He had never seen her before.

Yet something about her felt painfully familiar.

“You came earlier than I expected,” she said.

Her voice was low and gentle, every word spoken with care. She did not sound cold.

She sounded sad.

“Who are you?” Theo asked.

The woman extended one gloved hand toward him.

“I am someone who owes you a gift.”

“A gift?”

“Your life was short and cruel.” Her fingers curled slightly, as though resisting the urge to touch him. “I will not allow it to end that way.”

Theo stepped back.

“This is a dream.”

Her laugh was faint and sorrowful.

“Perhaps.”

“Or I died.”

“That is also true.”

His throat tightened.

“So I’m dead?”

“You are between one life and the next.”

The darkness around them pulsed gently, almost like a living thing breathing.

Theo stared at her.

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing.”

“No one gives something for nothing.”

“I do.”

She moved closer.

“You will be born again. You will have a different body and a different name. You will be stronger than you were before.”

Theo tried to laugh, but the sound caught in his throat.

“Reincarnation isn’t real.”

“You will see.”

Her veiled face tilted toward him.

“But you must promise me something, Theo.”

“What?”

“Live this life for yourself.”

Her voice trembled.

“Live for joy. Live for love. Allow yourself to want things without apologizing for them.”

The words pressed against him like a warm tide.

No one had ever spoken to him that way.

Not even his family.

Theo raised a hand toward her veil.

“Why do you sound like you know me?”

She stepped back before his fingers could reach her.

“Because I do.”

The first crack appeared in her composure.

“More than you realize.”

The darkness folded inward behind her.

Her figure began to recede.

“Wait!”

Theo lunged forward.

“Who are you?”

The shadows pulled her farther away.

Her final words reached him only in fragments.

“Live… my…”

The darkness surged between them.

“I… you…”

For one impossible moment, Theo thought he could feel her smiling through her tears.

Then she vanished.