Seraphine Vale's POV
I threw my phone across the room.
It hit the wall and clattered to the floor. My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
"Delete everything or your friend Echo dies."
The threat kept replaying in my head. Someone knew. Someone was watching. Someone wanted my evidence destroyed.
But who? Morgana just found out I existed. Cassius didn't even know my name yet. So who else knew I had files that could destroy them?
Unless...
My stomach dropped. Unless they'd been monitoring my cloud storage. Unless they saw me access those files and panicked.
I crawled across the floor and grabbed my phone. The screen had a crack now but still worked. I opened my cloud storage with trembling fingers.
Everything was still there. Sixteen years of evidence. Recordings of assaults. Photos of illegal contracts. Videos of abuse. Proof that could send a dozen powerful people to prison.
At the top of the folder was a file I didn't remember uploading: "READ_ME_FIRST.txt"
I opened it.
"You're not the only one who came back. Delete nothing. Trust Kade Thorne. Save Echo. We're running out of time. —A Friend"
The phone slipped from my hands.
Someone else traveled back in time. Someone else knew what I knew. Someone else was trying to fix the past.
But who? And why were they helping me?
My mind raced through possibilities. Another artist who died? Someone Morgana destroyed? Someone from the industry who regretted staying silent?
I picked up the phone and typed a reply in the document:
"Who are you? How did you come back?"
I waited. Nothing happened. Of course not—cloud documents didn't work like chat messages.
But then, as I watched, new words appeared on the screen. Someone was typing in real-time.
"No time to explain. They're tracking your location through your phone. You have 10 minutes before they find you. Go to Echo's showcase early. Stay in crowds. Don't be alone."
My blood turned to ice. "Who's tracking me?"
"Cassius has connections everywhere. Police. Tech companies. Even some FBI agents. When you accessed those files, an alert triggered. He knows someone has evidence against him. He just doesn't know it's you yet."
"How do I stop him from finding out?"
"You don't. You use it against him. But first—MOVE. NOW. They're coming."
I jumped up and grabbed my jacket. Then stopped.
The evidence. If they were tracking my phone, they could seize it. Destroy everything.
I ran to my laptop and started downloading every file to a USB drive. My hands shook so badly I could barely type.
Come on. Come on. COME ON.
45% downloaded.
A car door slammed outside my apartment. Heavy footsteps on the stairs.
65% downloaded.
A knock on my door. Hard. Aggressive. "LAPD. Open up."
No way those were real cops. Real cops would identify themselves properly. These were Cassius's people.
85% downloaded.
"Open this door or we're breaking it down!"
95%...
The door handle jiggled. Someone was picking the lock.
99%...
COMPLETE.
I yanked the USB drive out, shoved it in my bra, and ran to my window. Three stories up but there was a fire escape.
The door burst open just as I climbed out.
"She's running!"
I didn't look back. Just jumped down the fire escape stairs two at a time. My ankle twisted on the last step and pain shot up my leg but I kept going.
Behind me, someone was climbing down. Fast.
I hit the alley and ran. My mind went into survival mode—skills I learned in my first life when I had to escape an obsessed fan who stalked me for months.
I knew this neighborhood. Knew every shortcut. Every dead end. Every place to hide.
I ducked through a gap between buildings, climbed over a fence, and came out on the next street over. A bus was pulling up to a stop.
I jumped on just as the doors were closing.
Through the window, I saw two men in black suits searching the alley. One was talking into a radio.
The bus pulled away. I slumped in my seat, breathing hard, ankle throbbing.
That was too close.
I checked my phone. A new message in the cloud document:
"Good. You're smarter than you were in your first life. Now listen carefully. At Echo's showcase tonight, Cassius will be there. He's scouting her. You need to expose him publicly before he can hurt her. Use the video file marked 'Cassius_Confession.mp4'—it's a recording from your first timeline where he admits to assaulting multiple women. Play it during the showcase. Make it viral."
My hands tightened on my phone. "That will destroy him."
"That's the point. But it will also make you a target. Every predator in the industry will know someone has evidence against them. They'll come after you hard."
"I don't care."
"You should. Because Morgana is already planning something worse than you remember. In your first timeline, she just enslaved you with a contract. This time, you rejected her publicly. She's going to try to destroy you completely."
My throat went dry. "How?"
"She's going to claim YOU assaulted someone. She's fabricating evidence right now. Fake photos. Fake witnesses. By tomorrow morning, your name will be all over the news as a predator. No one will believe your accusations against Cassius because they'll think you're deflecting."
No. No no no.
That was brilliant. Evil, but brilliant. If Morgana accused me first, anything I said would look like revenge lies.
"How do I stop it?"
"You can't stop it. But you can control the narrative. Tonight, at the showcase, you expose Cassius FIRST. You tell YOUR story. You show your evidence. You make yourself the hero before she can make you the villain."
My mind raced. That meant going public. Revealing everything. Becoming the face of this fight.
In my first life, I spent sixteen years trying to stay invisible. Trying to be safe. Trying not to make waves.
Look where that got me.
"Okay," I typed. "I'll do it."
"One more thing. Kade Thorne is going to be at the showcase too. He's not there by accident. He's been investigating Cassius for months. He has his own evidence. You need to team up with him."
"Why should I trust him?"
"Because in your first timeline, he spent sixteen years trying to bring down the people who destroyed his mother. He failed. He died three years ago—heart attack from stress. But he never stopped fighting."
My chest hurt. Kade died fighting the same monsters that killed me.
We were the same. Both destroyed by an industry we loved.
"Where are you?" I typed desperately. "Why won't you tell me who you are?"
Long pause. Then:
"Because if you knew, you'd try to save me instead of yourself. And I'm already dead, Sera. I died in your first timeline. This is my last chance to fix things—through you. Don't waste it."
The document went blank. No more messages appeared.
I sat there on the bus, clutching my phone, tears streaming down my face.
Someone died in my first timeline and somehow sent their consciousness back—not into their own body, but into... what? The cloud? The internet? How was that even possible?
Magic? Technology? A glitch in the universe?
It didn't matter. What mattered was they were giving me a chance to save everyone they couldn't save.
Including themselves.
My phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number:
"Sera? It's Echo. Someone just sent me a video file. It's of Cassius Vex... doing terrible things. They said you'd explain. What's going on? Should I still meet with him next week?"
My heart stopped. The mysterious helper sent Echo the evidence directly.
I texted back: "Where are you? Don't go anywhere alone. I'm coming to you RIGHT NOW."
"I'm at the venue setting up for tonight. But Sera, this video... if this is real, we need to go to the police."
"The police won't help. Some of them work for Cassius. We have to expose him publicly. Tonight. At your showcase. Will you help me?"
Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.
"This is crazy."
"I know."
"We could get killed."
"I know."
"…I'm in. Let's burn him down."
I smiled through my tears. Echo was always the brave one.
The bus stopped near the venue. I got off, ankle still aching, USB drive pressed against my heart.
Tonight, everything would change. Tonight, I'd declare war on the entire industry.
Tonight, I'd become the thing they feared most—a victim who refused to stay silent.
I walked toward the venue, and then I saw him.
Kade Thorne, standing outside, watching the door. Like he'd been waiting for me.
Our eyes met across the street.
He smiled. Not a friendly smile. A knowing smile.
And I realized with sudden, terrifying certainty: he knew everything.
He knew I'd time-traveled. He knew about the evidence. He knew about the mysterious helper.
Which meant either he was my greatest ally...
Or my most dangerous enemy.
He crossed the street toward me.
And I had three seconds to decide whether to run or trust him with my life.