They gathered at dawn, by the stone circle beyond the city limits. The place was ancient—overgrown with moss, ruined by time, yet pulsing with power. Jeremy held his mother's journal, and Julie carried the parchment written by Henry. A symbolic fire already burned.
"This is it. Where it was meant to begin... and end," Julie whispered.
"If we do it right, the gate will open. Their energy will return. They'll be able to cross," Jeremy said.
He pulled two silver medallions from his pocket—the ones his parents had worn as angels. He placed them in the center of the circle, while Julie closed her eyes, focusing on the words from the book.
But before she could utter the first line of the incantation, the ground beneath them trembled. The wind shifted. Suddenly, the fire dimmed, and the air thickened.
"Not now..." Jeremy hissed, lifting his gaze.
From the shadows between the trees, Rosalie emerged.
She was smiling, but there was no warmth in her eyes.
"You really thought I'd let you bring them back? That I'd let you take everything I've built?"
"This isn't about you," Jeremy replied coldly. "It's about my parents. And something bigger."
"Bigger than power?" she laughed softly. "I've heard those dreams, Jeremy. I know them better than you do. I know what could really happen if they return. And you... you have no idea what you're doing."
Julie stepped closer to the circle.
"I know one thing. You're afraid. That's why you came. Because you feel it—you can't stop us anymore."
Rosalie's eyes glowed red. She stepped forward, raising her hand, but then the ground beneath the circle began to glow. A rune symbol carved by ancestors blazed with golden light.
Jeremy raised his arm, shielding Julie.
"Try to stop us, and you'll fall with this circle."
Rosalie hesitated. It was the first sign of weakness Julie had ever seen in her. At last, she stepped back.
"Be careful what you wish for. Some returns... end in a curse," she whispered, before vanishing into the air.
Jeremy looked at Julie. She nodded and turned back toward the center of the circle.
"Let's begin. Before she comes back."
*
Julie took a deep breath and began to recite the words from the parchment. Jeremy stood beside her, holding the medallions in open palms, while beneath his feet the runes pulsed with golden light that slowly shifted—darkening until it resembled molten lava.
"Invoco lumen sanguinis. Aperi ianuam inter mundos." Julie's voice was steady, confident, though her hands trembled.
Jeremy closed his eyes. Words from his mother's journal echoed in his mind—the last entry he had read before coming here:
"If the day comes when a bridge ignites from my blood, let it be the sign that our son's heart remained pure, and his soul—ready."
In an instant, the wind stilled. Time stopped.
And then the ground beneath them split.
It didn't collapse, didn't shake. It simply... parted with a thin, pale line of light that rose into the sky and tore open the space above them like lightning. From the rift, a glow seeped—not gold, not silver. It was something between light and darkness. Pure energy.
Julie tilted her head back. Her eyes shimmered. Jeremy stared into the streak of light and then—for the first time—he saw them.
The outline of two figures on the other side. Walking through the void, exhausted but determined. Jack and Alison. Their silhouettes were blurred, as if the light hadn't yet learned how to hold them.
"They... they're really there..." Julie whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Jeremy struggled to breathe. His hands began to tremble. He looked up—his father. Strong, yet more human than ever. And his mother. Pride and sorrow in her face.
"Jeremy..." Her voice was barely audible, but he knew it from the journal. From the blood.
Jack reached out his hand. Jeremy did the same.
And then... the barrier sparked. Something shook. Something powerful struck from within.
From behind the light, darkness emerged. A presence. Rosalie?
No.
Something older.
Something that did not want the balance disturbed.
Julie screamed as a wave of energy jerked her body. Jeremy caught her just in time, holding her as she collapsed into his arms. The connection began to close.
Jack and Alison managed one last glance. They smiled, sadly.
"Not yet," Jack said, his voice a whisper in the wind.
The veil cracked and sealed shut.
Silence fell.
Jeremy held Julie close. Her eyes were closed, but she was breathing. They both knew this wasn't the end.
It was just the beginning.
*
Julie came to in Jeremy's arms. Her eyes were glazed, her body trembling. The skin on her hands—those that had held the parchment—was burned with thin veins of light, as if inner energy had tried to break free.
"Easy now, you're with me," Jeremy whispered, pressing his forehead to hers. "You're going to be okay."
Julie raised a trembling hand and placed her fingers on his heart.
"They were really there... Jack and Alison. I saw them. I felt their presence."
Jeremy nodded, but fury simmered in his eyes. Not because of the ritual—but because of what he had sensed the moment the rift began to close.
"Rosalie... wasn't alone."
*
At the same time, Rosalie sat in a circle built from black sand and ash. Her hands were shaking, and a shadow swirled around her.
"They were close," she whispered into the void. "Too close."
From the darkness, a faceless specter emerged, speaking with the voice of many.
"We warned you. If they return, the balance will fall."
"I won't allow it. They'll try again—I know it. But I'm preparing. Julie... she's beginning to awaken, and Jeremy... has too much of them in him. I need to tear them apart. Both of them."
The voice lingered in the air.
"Give me one more day. Just one day... and I'll shatter their connection into pieces."
*
Henry stared at the ground where the light had just trembled. His wings—faded, degraded—quivered slightly beneath his cloak.
"The passage opened. And closed. That means the gate can be activated again. But no longer with the journal. Now, it'll take the power of connection. The heart. Not magic."
"Julie..." Jeremy understood what that meant. "If Rosalie breaks her... everything will be lost."
Henry looked him straight in the eye.
"Then we have to act. You must protect her—not just from Rosalie. But from yourself."
Jeremy fell silent. He knew his power—inherited from a demon—was growing unstable. In his dreams, he saw fire, heard voices, felt a hunger for control.
"Alright," he said finally. "But this time... we go all in. We change the rules of the game."