Elara woke to darkness.
Not the soft, velvety kind — but a suffocating void, thick and silent, like the world itself had stopped breathing.
Her body ached. Her magic pulsed erratically under her skin, like a heartbeat out of rhythm.
"Elara…?"
A voice drifted through the darkness — hesitant, shaking.
Lucian.
Her eyes fluttered open.
She was lying on a cot in the academy's infirmary, moonlight filtering through cracked windows. The room was destroyed — splintered shelves, shattered crystals, scorch marks on the walls.
Lucian sat beside her, head in his hands.
When he saw she was awake, relief broke across his face so quickly it almost hurt to look at.
"You're alive." His voice cracked. "Gods, I thought—"
He didn't finish. He just reached for her hand — but stopped himself an inch away, remembering the pact, remembering the danger.
Elara's voice was faint. "What… happened?"
Lucian swallowed hard. "The intruder vanished the moment you lost control. Damien and Liora got you out just before the ceiling collapsed. You—"
He looked away again.
"You nearly died in my arms."
Elara felt her chest tighten, not just from pain. "The hooded figure… he knew me. From before."
Lucian's jaw clenched. "Damien said the same."
"Where is he?" she asked quietly.
Lucian hesitated — then answered:
"He hasn't left the hallway outside since we brought you here."
✦ Damien enters
Almost on cue, the infirmary door burst open.
Damien stood there — hair disheveled, shirt torn, a bandage wrapped around his arm where falling debris must've hit him. But his eyes…
His eyes went straight to Elara.
"You're awake." His voice was rough, stripped of his usual arrogance.
Lucian stiffened but didn't argue.
Damien approached the bed slowly, as if afraid she'd disappear again.
"You scared the hell out of us."A beat."Scared me."
Elara blinked in shock. Damien rarely admitted anything—especially not fear.
She wet her lips. "The intruder… he showed me things. Memories."
Damien's gaze sharpened. "What kind?"
"Someone being killed," she whispered. "Someone in a white dress. Me."
Lucian flinched. Damien's hands curled into fists.
"That wasn't all," she added. "He said I was executed… for loving someone I shouldn't."
Both boys went still.
Elara looked between them — heart racing.
"Do either of you know what that means?"
Lucian opened his mouth to answer — but Damien beat him, voice low and tense:
"It means someone from your past life is hunting you."
✦ The truth splinters
Lucian's expression darkened. "You're assuming."
"No," Damien said sharply. "I remember."
The room went silent.
Elara stared at him. "You… remember me?"
Damien froze.
Lucian turned, slow and deadly. "What did you just say?"
Damien didn't back down this time. His eyes were locked on Elara, not Lucian.
"There were fragments before," he said quietly. "Dreams. Flashes. But when you touched the locket today, everything snapped together."
He took a shaky breath.
"Elara… I knew you. In your first life."
Lucian's hands clenched at his sides.
Elara whispered, "Who… was I to you?"
Damien closed his eyes for a moment — as if choosing words could shatter the world.
When he opened them, they were full of something raw.
"You were the one person I wasn't allowed to care about," he said."And the only person I ever did."
Lucian inhaled sharply — like someone had stabbed him.
Before Elara could respond, the infirmary window shattered — a dagger embedding itself in the wall inches from her head.
Attached to it was a strip of black silk.
A message burned into it with glowing silver script:
"The Princess has awakened.The heart must be silenced again."
Elara's blood ran cold.
Lucian drew his sword instantly.
Damien stepped protectively in front of her without hesitation.
And outside, in the darkness beyond the window, a familiar laugh echoed — the same one from the sanctum.
The killer was close.
Watching.
Waiting.