To Have, Not To Hold

Preview

They met under the golden haze of a setting sun, as they always did.

His eyes, the color of storms, held a flicker of recognition that sent chills down her spine. Her name spilled from his lips in a whisper he didn’t understand, as though his soul remembered what his mind could not. She reached for him, her hand trembling, knowing the touch would burn. It always did.

Every lifetime began the same.

Their hearts, bound by threads spun across eternity, beat in unison. She felt his joy, his pain, his longing—and he felt hers. In every breath, in every step, they were tethered. Yet the world conspired against them. Every choice, every force of nature, drove them apart.

They had been lovers, warriors, poets, even strangers. Each time they had found each other. Each time, they had been torn apart.

This time was no different.

He wore the ring of another, a weight heavy on his hand. She carried the burden of a promise she had made to herself, to never hope for him again. And yet, here they were—standing together in a moment that felt too fragile to hold.

“You feel it, don’t you?” she asked, her voice breaking.

His silence was answer enough.

They were cursed to this eternal ache. To love but never hold. To yearn but never claim. Each lifetime, they had to make the same choice: to walk away and live incomplete or die together and carry the pain into the next life.

She turned from him, her heart fracturing into pieces that would never heal. He didn’t call after her. He couldn’t. This was how it always ended.

Yet as she disappeared into the shadows, a quiet truth settled between them, a truth that had been carved into their souls:

In every race, every form, and every lifetime, they would find each other.

And in every lifetime, they would lose.

For their love was eternal,

But never theirs to keep.