The cobbled roads of the outer capital looked nothing like the polished marble of the inner court, and I was grateful for it.
The scent of warm bread drifted from a nearby bakery, and for a moment, I could pretend I wasn't returning to a life that had been taken from me once already. My skirts trailed in the dust, a borrowed cloak drawn tightly around me, hood up to conceal my face. Alistair walked beside me in his travel leathers, hood lowered, shoulders relaxed—but I knew better than to think he wasn't alert.
"Do you think they know I'm alive?" I asked quietly.
"They will now."
That was the problem.
According to the original novel, Seraphina's disappearance had been marked as an accident—a tragic slip down the stairs during a fire in the manor. By the time Elira found the truth, Seraphina was already cold in her grave, and the court had moved on. The Duke mourned his daughter privately, and Prince Caelum publicly offered condolences while quietly preparing for his engagement to Elira.
But I was back.
And this time, I wasn't going to die quietly.
Alistair guided us down a quieter alley, finally stopping before an inconspicuous stone townhouse. Vines crawled up the shutters, and the door was carved with old crest symbols—faded but recognizable.
"A safe house?" I guessed.
"One of mine."
"You have houses in the capital?"
"Three, technically. This one's the least monitored."
I followed him inside. The interior was simple: dark wood beams, thick curtains, a modest fireplace, and a set of stairs that creaked under our steps. He led me to a small room with a window view of the distant palace dome.
"You'll stay here until I say otherwise."
The way he said it left no room for debate.
I sat on the edge of the bed, my fingers twitching in my lap. "You said I shouldn't be seen."
"If you walk into the palace now, you'll be declared a ghost—or worse, an imposter. And they'll put you down before you can say your name."
"But I need to reclaim—"
"You need to survive."
I fell silent.
He wasn't wrong.
A pause. Then he turned toward the door.
"I'll return after I assess the situation."
"Alistair—"
He stopped.
"Thank you," I said.
He didn't respond—just closed the door behind him.
I sank into the bed, my head spinning. I felt like I had barely enough time to breathe before everything around me started moving faster than I could process. The capital, the nobles, the lies, and the shattered pieces of my past—my life seemed like an intricate web that I was both a part of and desperately trying to escape. I didn't know who to trust anymore, least of all Elira. My best friend. The person who had once shared my secrets, who had been there for me when my heart was raw with longing for Prince Caelum.
Now she was gone, lost to a future I had left behind, and the one who replaced her was a stranger to me.
The knock on the door startled me out of my thoughts.
I rushed to open it, expecting it to be Alistair.
Instead, I found Elira standing there, her face pale, eyes wide with a mix of relief and disbelief. The moment her gaze met mine, I could see the tears welling up in her eyes.
"Seraphina?"
I stepped back instinctively, as if the woman standing before me might disappear like a dream. Was this real? Or had I slipped into some other strange dimension, where nothing made sense anymore?
"Elira…" My voice trembled, and I hated it. I didn't want her to see how broken I was inside. How lost I felt in this world that wasn't mine.
She reached out hesitantly, her fingers brushing against my cheek, as though she were afraid I might vanish again. "I… I thought I'd lost you forever."
"I escaped," I said quietly. My words felt hollow. The truth was harder to swallow than I had imagined. I didn't just escape death—I had escaped everything.
Elira's breath hitched. "I don't understand. How? Why?"
I hesitated. I couldn't tell her the truth. Not yet. She wouldn't understand. "It wasn't safe to tell anyone. Not even you."
She looked so vulnerable standing there, her eyes searching mine for answers. But I couldn't give them to her.
"Caelum," she whispered, her voice breaking. "He... He's been lost without you. He thought the worst—that you were taken from him. And now, he…" She faltered, looking down at the floor. "He needs you."
The pain in her voice hit me harder than I expected. I had to resist the urge to flinch. "Caelum is engaged to you now," I said, trying to keep my voice steady.
Elira flinched, but she quickly recovered. "He's never stopped thinking about you. Not really. He—he just didn't know how to handle losing you."
I clenched my fists at my sides. He didn't love me. He never had. He loved the idea of me. He loved what he stood to gain from marrying the Duke's daughter, the woman who was destined to stand beside him in the royal court. I could feel the familiar sting of disappointment threatening to overtake me, but I pushed it down.
"It doesn't matter now," I said, my voice firming. "I'm not going back to him."
Elira's face fell. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but I shook my head.
"I'm not going back to anyone," I muttered, the weight of my decision settling over me. "This time, I live for myself."
Alistair returned hours later, just as the sky outside darkened with the onset of night.
"You were gone longer than I thought," I said, trying to sound casual as he stepped inside.
"I had to gather some information," he said, his eyes narrowing as he took in my expression. "What did she want?"
"Elira?" I asked, surprised by his tone. "She just… wanted to know if I was alive. I think she still cares, but I don't know if I can believe her anymore."
"Do you trust her?"
"I don't know," I admitted, my voice breaking despite myself. "I don't know who I can trust anymore."
Alistair studied me for a moment before walking over to the window. He pulled the curtain aside and looked out at the palace in the distance. His jaw clenched. "The court will hear of your return soon. You're no longer a ghost. It's only a matter of time before Caelum comes for you."
"And then?"
He turned to face me, his expression darkening. "Then we'll make them regret it."
I swallowed hard. "What does that mean?"
"It means," he said, his eyes hard as steel, "I will ensure that no one, not even the royals, can threaten you."
I felt a shiver run down my spine. There was power in his words. And for the first time since my return, I felt a small flicker of hope. Not for the future—nothing was guaranteed—but for the first time, I believed that Alistair might be someone I could rely on. Someone who wouldn't just leave me to face this alone.
The silence in the room pressed against me like a weight, my fingers twitching, desperate to grasp at something solid, something real. It was so easy to pretend that nothing had changed when everything around me felt unfamiliar, but the truth was undeniable.
I had been here before. Not this version of myself—not the Seraphina who had lost her life—but the woman who had been engaged to Prince Caelum, loved by all, deceived by the very people she trusted. The same woman who had thought she could escape her fate only to fall into a deeper, more terrifying web. I knew this story, this cycle, and yet… now I was playing a new game with different rules.
I ran my fingers over the edge of the bed, a mundane action that grounded me in the present. But the future loomed over me, threatening to pull me back into the web I was trying to avoid.
Elira's visit was unexpected, and I wasn't sure how to feel about it. Part of me wanted to hold her close, to beg for her forgiveness for the way things had unfolded between us. But another part of me couldn't shake the feeling that Elira's reappearance signaled something much more complicated than just the love of a best friend.
"I should've known you were still alive," she had whispered, standing before me with tears in her eyes. "I should've realized you were never the kind of person who would just disappear."
But I hadn't disappeared. I had been taken—by my own hand and by the circumstances of my life. Now, I was here, standing in front of her, watching as the once-familiar expressions of concern and affection twisted into something more complicated. I had seen it before—the way people viewed me when they thought I was just a memory. They loved me, sure. But love was such a fragile thing when it was built on lies.
"I didn't want to hurt you," I had replied, feeling the cold distance in my voice that had begun to settle there since my reincarnation.
Elira had said nothing to that, and for the first time, I saw the cracks in our friendship. There was no love lost between us, no sudden betrayal, but I could feel it—the shifting of allegiances. She had chosen to stand by Prince Caelum, the very man who was supposed to be my fiancé.
And in this new life, I had no place beside him.
Hours later, Alistair returned, his expression unreadable as he entered the room.
The moment I saw him, something inside me shifted, as if my entire world had tilted just a little bit out of alignment. It wasn't a romantic attraction—not yet—but there was something about him that drew me in. His presence was like a storm on the horizon, one that you could see but not predict, dangerous yet thrilling.
"You should be careful," he said without preamble, his voice low. "Elira may not be the friend you think she is."
I didn't need to ask what he meant. "She's my only connection to the life I left behind," I said, my voice thin with emotion I had not expected. "And you think I should just sever that tie?"
"I think you're playing a dangerous game by trusting anyone. Especially someone with ties to Prince Caelum."
I frowned. "And why should I trust you?"
His eyes flickered to mine for a brief moment, an unreadable expression crossing his face. He didn't say anything for a long time, and for that moment, I wondered if he even had an answer to my question.
"I don't need you to trust me," he said finally, his tone quieter but still firm. "I need you to survive. And for that, you'll need to make hard choices."
As I sat alone later that evening, my mind wandered back to the palace. The thought of Prince Caelum—so cold, so distant, and yet so tied to my fate—hadn't left me all day. The original Seraphina had loved him with a passion that was pure and untainted, but I knew better now. She had been fooled, just like everyone else.
My thoughts shifted to the present: Alistair, the fifth prince, and the complex puzzle that he presented. He wasn't like Caelum. He had no claim to the throne by blood, yet there was something in him that made him more dangerous. His sharpness, his intelligence, his ability to see through the lies that surrounded us—those were qualities I hadn't expected in someone I thought I could control.
It was funny, really. The way he made me question my own decisions, my own sense of control. He wasn't my savior. Not yet. But I wasn't as certain about the path ahead as I had been before my reincarnation. My memories of the novel and the people in it seemed like distant whispers now—fragments of a world I no longer belonged to.
The next day, I ventured outside for the first time since I arrived at the townhouse. The cool air brushed against my skin, and the bustling sounds of the city filled my ears. I couldn't help but notice how different it felt now that I was back. The people moved with a sense of purpose, unaware of the storm that was brewing just beneath the surface.
"Seraphina." The voice was soft, but I knew exactly who it was before I turned.
Elira had found me again, her steps light as she approached.
"You shouldn't be here," I warned her, my voice barely above a whisper. "This place isn't safe anymore."
"I don't care," she replied quickly, her face flushed from the effort of finding me. "I need to know what's going on. Why did you leave us? Why didn't you tell me you were still alive?"
I exhaled sharply, turning my gaze away from her. "I couldn't. I had to get away from everything. From you. From Caelum."
The tension in the air grew thick as I spoke the words I had avoided for so long.
"Elira, I—"
Her eyes filled with something that resembled fear. "What does that mean?"
I looked back at her, my own heart thumping in my chest as I struggled to form the words. The truth was, I couldn't look at her and lie anymore.
"It means that everything I thought I knew about my life, about my future—it was all a lie. And now I'm trying to make sure it doesn't happen again."
I spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of the capital, my mind turning over every detail. Elira's words echoed in my head: Caelum needs you.
It was hard to believe that anyone needed me anymore, especially someone like Prince Caelum. But the thought of returning to the palace, to the gilded cage that once held me, seemed impossible. And yet, I knew I had no other choice. The future I had glimpsed in the novel was already starting to unfold. I could feel it, like the pull of a tide that would carry me into the chaos of the royal court once again.
That evening, Alistair returned, his face grim.
"Things are moving faster than I expected," he said as he sat down across from me. "The capital is already talking about your 'return.'"
I sat up straighter, my pulse quickening. "What does that mean?"
"It means," Alistair began slowly, "that Prince Caelum is about to make his move. He won't be able to resist coming to find you. And when he does, it's not going to be a simple reunion."
I swallowed hard. "And what do I do then?"
"You survive. We'll figure out the rest when the time comes."
In that moment, I realized that the future I was trying to outrun had already caught up with me.