Third Time's the Charm

Prologue

Red.

The color of blood. Or the color of the rose in her hands. Or...the color of her hair.

That color sure gives me a lot of bad memories.

Of war, of tragic love, of bleeding wounds...of bleeding hearts. Of the way it contrasts to her pale complexion once when it pooled around her, and the way it pooled around me too.

But red did give me a lot of good memories too.

Of those strands of hair in the middle of my fingers. Of the way those red lips formed into the most beautiful smile, I've ever seen. 

Of that red-haired woman.

That woman I've loved my whole life...or, well, lives.

Whether her name was Karina, the daughter of a nobleman, that I loved and fought for. My greatest triumph.

Or she can be Aurora, the woman I turned into my Queen, had a child with, the one I gave up my life for.

But...

Those times didn't end well.

It always ended tragically.

First when she ran into the battlefield in search of me. A wife worried for her husband.

Or when I was the one who said goodbye too early, a husband who widowed his wife.

And now, my soul feels like it's getting pulled. To come back into the world. And that only means one thing.

She's back.... she's here too.

I finally walked out of that darkness, to go back to where I belonged.

I once was Trident, reborn into Thryzk, and now I am Triton.

She once was Karina, reborn into Aurora, and now she's Maddieson. Still with her hair as red as blood.

It's the third life.

And maybe...

Just maybe...

Our third time's the charm.