Selene's POV
I wake up screaming.
My hands claw at my throat. I can't breathe. I'm drowning. Water fills my lungs. Dark, cold water pulling me down, down, down—
"Selene! You're safe. Breathe."
Strong hands grip my shoulders. Silver eyes stare into mine. Kael. The man from the rain.
I gasp and air floods my lungs. I'm not drowning. I'm in a bed. A huge, soft bed that's not mine.
"Where—" My voice cracks. "Where am I?"
"My penthouse." Kael sits back, giving me space. "You've been asleep for six hours."
Six hours? I look around wildly. The room is beautiful. Huge windows show the ocean. The sun is rising.
Then everything comes crashing back. The party. Ryan. Vivienne. My parents disowning me. Everything stolen.
I lost everything.
"No, no, no." I try to get out of bed but my legs won't work. They're shaking too hard. "I need to go. I need to fix this. I need to call someone—"
"Who will you call?" Kael asks gently. "Your family won't answer. Your fiancé has a restraining order. Your phone service is cut off."
Each word is a knife. Because he's right. I have no one.
"My best friend," I whisper. "Mira. She'll help me."
Kael hands me a phone. "Use mine."
I grab it and dial Mira's number. She answers on the first ring.
"Hello?"
"Mira! Thank God. It's me, Selene—"
"Selene?" Mira's voice goes cold. "Are you seriously calling me right now?"
My stomach drops. "What?"
"I saw the videos. Everyone saw them. You stole from your own company? From Ryan? I thought you were better than that."
"No! Mira, those documents were fake. Ryan set me up—"
"Ryan showed me proof this morning. Bank transfers with your signature. Your fingerprints on the withdrawal slips. He came to my apartment at 6 AM crying because he trusted you and you betrayed him."
Ryan went to Mira's apartment? He's been planning this for so long. Every detail covered.
"Mira, please. You know me. I would never—"
"I thought I knew you." Mira's voice breaks. "But you lied to everyone. You're a thief. Don't call me again."
She hangs up.
I stare at the phone. My last friend. My only friend. Gone.
"He got to her already," I whisper. "Ryan poisoned everyone against me."
Kael takes his phone back. "He's been planning this for months. Maybe longer."
"How do you know that?"
Kael hesitates. "Because I've been watching you for three months. I saw him meeting with lawyers. Setting up fake accounts. I saw everything."
Ice runs through my veins. "You've been watching me? For three months? That's—that's stalking!"
"I was protecting you."
"From what?" I jump out of bed. My legs are steadier now. Anger makes them work. "You don't know me! You keep calling me Aria like I'm someone else. You talk about past lives and curses. You're insane!"
Kael stands too. He's so tall. So intense. His silver eyes pin me in place.
"You had a nightmare just now," he says quietly. "Didn't you?"
I freeze. "So?"
"What was it about?"
I don't want to tell him. But the words come out anyway. "I was drowning. In dark water. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't—" My voice breaks.
Kael's face goes pale. "The eleventh life. You were a sailor's daughter in the Caribbean. You drowned when your ship sank during a storm. You were twenty-six years old."
My heart stops. "How could you possibly know that?"
"Because I was there." He moves closer. "I pulled you from the water. But it was too late. You died in my arms on the beach. Your last words were 'find me again.'"
This is crazy. This is absolutely crazy. But something inside me recognizes his words. Like hearing a song I've forgotten but my soul still knows.
"No," I shake my head hard. "No. You're messing with my head. Maybe Ryan paid you to—"
"Ryan didn't pay me." Kael's voice hardens. "Ryan is one of your murderers."
"My what?"
"In your first life, a thousand years ago, you were betrayed by your cousin Morganna and your lover's friend Darius. They lied about you. Destroyed your reputation. Got you sentenced to death." Kael's jaw clenches. "Morganna has reincarnated as your sister Vivienne. Darius has reincarnated as Ryan. They're the same souls. And they're following the same pattern."
My head spins. "That's impossible."
"Is it?" Kael pulls out a tablet and shows me photos. "Look."
The screen shows old paintings. Ancient paintings. A beautiful woman in white robes. She looks... she looks like me. Same eyes. Same face shape.
Next to her is a man in armor. He looks exactly like Kael.
"This was painted in 956 AD," Kael says. "The year you died the first time."
"Photoshop," I whisper. But my hands shake as I stare at the painting.
"Look at this one." He swipes to another image. A photograph from 1890. A woman in a Victorian dress. She has my face. Next to her stands Kael in an old-fashioned suit.
Another swipe. A photograph from 1943. A nurse in a hospital. My face again. Kael in a military uniform beside her.
More photos. More lives. All with my face. All with Kael standing nearby.
"Stop," I beg. "Please stop."
"I can't stop." Kael's voice breaks. "Because in three weeks, you're going to die again. And I can't—" He turns away. "I can't watch you die another time. I can't survive it."
Three weeks. That's what the message said. The woman in the car.
"Why three weeks?" I ask.
"Because the pattern is accelerating. Usually you live until close to your twenty-seventh birthday. But Elara—my oracle—saw a vision. This time is different. Ryan and Vivienne are moving faster. They're going to kill you before the month ends."
"Kill me?" My laugh sounds hysterical. "Why would they kill me? They already destroyed my life!"
"Because that's what they did in the first life!" Kael spins back to face me. "They didn't just ruin your reputation, Aria. They murdered you. Poisoned you. And your soul—your soul wouldn't let go. It bonded with mine during the blood vow. So now you're trapped in a cycle. Dying and being reborn. Over and over. While they reincarnate too, driven to destroy you every single time."
I back away from him. This is too much. Too crazy. Too—
Pain explodes in my head.
I see flashes. Images. Memories that aren't mine.
A stone temple. Full moon overhead. A man kneeling before me. "I offer my life for hers."
Flames. So many flames. Burning. Everything burning.
A woman's voice: "You chose wrong, cousin. Now you'll pay forever."
Poison. I can taste it. Bitter and wrong. My throat closing. Can't breathe. Can't—
I collapse. Kael catches me before I hit the floor.
"Selene! What's happening?"
"I saw—" I gasp. "I saw the temple. The fire. I saw..." I look up at him. "I saw you. You were there. You were really there."
His eyes widen. "You're remembering."
"How is this possible?"
"Because your soul recognizes the truth." He helps me sit on the bed. "Selene, I know this is terrifying. But you have to trust me. We have three weeks to break this curse. Three weeks to stop Ryan and Vivienne. Three weeks to save your life."
"And if we can't?"
Kael's face shows such raw pain that it hurts to look at. "Then I'll hold you while you die. Again. And pray that the nineteenth life treats us better than the first eighteen."
Tears run down my face. "I don't want to die."
"I won't let you." He wipes my tears with his thumb. "Not this time. I swear on every life we've lived, I will find a way to break this curse."
Before I can respond, his phone rings. He answers it.
"Thorne, what—" His face goes white. "What? When?" He looks at me. "We'll be right there."
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"That was my associate. Your sister Vivienne just announced her engagement to Ryan on social media." Kael shows me his phone.
There's a photo of Vivienne and Ryan kissing. Her hand shows a huge diamond ring. The caption reads: "So blessed to marry my soulmate! Some things are just meant to be. #TrueLove #NewBeginnings"
Posted one hour ago. Seventeen thousand likes already.
"They're engaged," I whisper. "They destroyed my life and now they're celebrating."
"There's more." Kael scrolls down. "Read the comments."
Someone wrote: "What about Selene? Wasn't she engaged to him?"
Vivienne replied: "My sister stole from Ryan and tried to frame him. We're just grateful he discovered the truth before the wedding. Some people aren't who they pretend to be."
The comment has five thousand likes.
I'm going to be sick.
"That's not the worst part," Kael says quietly. He shows me another post. This one is from Ryan:
"Excited to announce that Vivienne and I will be taking over Moonlight Events and renaming it 'Eternal Dreams Planning.' Our first event? Our wedding in two weeks! Invitations going out tomorrow to all of Selene's former clients. Let's show them what real professionalism looks like."
Two weeks. They're getting married in two weeks.
Using my company. Inviting my clients. Celebrating their love that they built on my destruction.
"I'm going to that wedding," I say. My voice doesn't sound like mine anymore. It sounds cold. Hard. "I'm going to walk in there and—"
"And what?" Kael grabs my shoulders. "Yell at them? They have restraining orders and guards. You'll get arrested."
"I don't care!"
"Selene, listen to me." His silver eyes burn into mine. "If you want revenge, I'll help you get it. But we do it smart. We do it right. And we do it in a way that destroys them completely."
Something in his voice makes me pause. "How?"
A dangerous smile crosses Kael's face. "In two weeks, we're going to that wedding. But not as uninvited guests. We're going as the event's new owners."
"What?"
"Ryan doesn't legally own Moonlight Events yet. The paperwork takes thirty days to process. I checked." Kael's smile grows. "But I can buy the company from the bank today. For triple what it's worth. Which means in two weeks, Ryan and Vivienne will be planning their wedding using a company that you own again."
Hope flickers in my chest for the first time since the party.
"And then?" I ask.
"And then we ruin them the way they ruined you." Kael pulls out his phone. "But first, you need to see something else. Something Thorne just sent me."
He shows me a video. Security footage from the hotel on the night of my party. The timestamp says it's from two hours before Ryan's announcement.
The video shows Vivienne and Ryan in a back hallway. They're talking to someone I can't see. Then the person steps into view.
My blood runs cold.
It's my father.
My own father. Handing Ryan a folder. Ryan opens it and smiles. Inside are the fake embezzlement documents.
"Your father was in on it," Kael says quietly. "He helped them frame you."
The room spins. My father. My own father betrayed me too.
"Why?" I whisper. "Why would he do that?"
"I don't know yet. But we're going to find out." Kael stands. "Get dressed. We have work to do."
"Where are we going?"
"To buy your company back. And then—" His silver eyes flash with something dangerous. "Then we're going to war."