The room exploded.
Cassian swore.
Alekxander moved so fast I barely saw it.
One second Lucien was standing near the fireplace.
The next, Alekxander had him slammed against the wall with a blade pressed against his throat.
“Say that again.”
His voice was terrifyingly calm.
Lucien didn’t even flinch.
“They know.”
I stared at them both, my heartbeat pounding painfully.
“What does that even mean?” I demanded.
“Survived what?”
Nobody answered me immediately.
Which was becoming everyone’s favorite hobby apparently.
I threw my hands up.
“Amazing. Great communication skills all around.”
Cassian pointed toward Alekxander without looking away from the scene.
“To be fair, he’s currently threatening murder.”
“Valid.”
Alekxander pressed the blade harder against Lucien’s throat.
“Who knows?”
“The inner circle.”
Cold silence.
Even Cassian’s expression changed at that.
I looked between them slowly.
“Why do all of you suddenly look like someone announced the apocalypse?”
Lucien’s gaze shifted toward me.
“Because they have spent decades searching for proof that death is not the end.”
My stomach dropped.
“And now they think I’m proof,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
The word hit like ice water.
For a second nobody spoke.
Then I laughed weakly.
Not because it was funny.
Because my brain genuinely could not process anything anymore.
“Okay,” I said slowly.
“Sure. Why not? At this point let’s just add demons too.”
Cassian rubbed his forehead.
“Please don’t manifest that.”
Alekxander finally released Lucien roughly.
“Start from the beginning,” he said coldly.
Lucien adjusted his collar calmly like he hadn’t just almost died.
Honestly?
Weird behavior.
“The Society believed memory could survive death,” Lucien said.
“Not ordinary memory. Emotional memory. Identity. Consciousness.”
“That sounds deeply unethical,” I muttered.
“It was.”
I wrapped my arms around myself tighter.
Every answer somehow made things worse.
“How am I connected to this?”
Lucien looked at me carefully.
“Because you succeeded.”
The room fell silent again.
I stared at him blankly.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I literally died.”
“And yet you still exist.”
I opened my mouth.
Closed it again.
Fair enough.
Hated that.
Cassian exhaled slowly.
“The founders believed certain bloodlines could carry fragments of themselves beyond death. Most experiments failed.”
“Experiments,” I repeated quietly.
God.
Every time they used that word, I felt sick.
Not people.
Not lives.
Experiments.
Alekxander’s expression hardened when he looked at Lucien.
“Why are they moving now?”
“Because she remembers too much.”
His eyes shifted toward me again.
“You were supposed to awaken slowly.”
“Awaken?” I echoed.
“I sound like a haunted artifact.”
“You remember things earlier than expected. The visions are becoming stronger.”
I hated that he was right.
Sharper.
More real.
And every single one left me feeling less certain about who I even was anymore.
I swallowed hard.
“What exactly am I remembering?”
Lucien went quiet for a moment.
Then.
“Lives.”
The word knocked the air out of me.
“No.”
“You already know it’s true.”
“I do not.”
“You recognized me.”
A chill ran down my spine.
Because part of me had.
Not consciously.
But something inside me reacted to him immediately.
Like seeing someone from a dream you forgot.
I stepped backward slowly.
“No.”
Alekxander moved instantly, grabbing my wrist gently.
“Ophelia.”
I looked at him.
Really looked at him.
And suddenly something terrifying hit me.
“You knew.”
His expression changed immediately.
Not denial.
Not confusion.
Pain.
“You knew there was a chance I wasn’t…” My throat tightened painfully.
“Just Ophelia Ashbourne.”
“Stop,” he said quietly.
“How long have you known?”
“I wasn’t certain.”
“That’s not an answer.”
His grip loosened slightly around my wrist.
“I suspected after your first vision.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“After the garden?”
“Yes.”
“And you said NOTHING?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
I laughed sharply.
“There it is.”
The words came out before I could stop them.
That same answer.
Again.
Always.
His face hardened slightly.
“You think this is easy for me?”
“I think lying to me is becoming very easy for you.”
The moment the words left my mouth, regret hit instantly.
Because he looked.
God.
He looked tired.
Not angry.
Just tired.
Cassian looked deeply uncomfortable.
“I suddenly feel like I should not be here.”
“You absolutely should not,” I muttered.
Lucien watched us silently.
Observing.
Thinking.
I hated it.
I turned toward him sharply.
“And what exactly is your role in all this?”
His expression became unreadable.
“I was part of the Society once.”
Cassian cursed immediately.
Alekxander’s hand moved toward his weapon again.
Lucien sighed.
“Must everyone threaten me every few minutes?”
“You admitted to being part of an evil secret organization,” Cassian said flatly.
“Read the room.”
Honestly?
Again, fair point.
I stared at Lucien carefully.
“Why are you helping me?”
A strange look crossed his face.
Not pity.
Not guilt.
Something sadder.
“Because I failed you before.”
My chest tightened painfully.
Before.
Again with before.
Everything always came back to before.
Before this life.
Before Ophelia Ashbourne.
Before me.
Or whoever the hell I used to be.
“You keep talking like you knew me,” I whispered.
Lucien held my gaze.
“I loved you once.”
Silence.
Complete silence.
Cassian choked.
I blinked once.
Twice.
Then pointed at myself awkwardly.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, that’s actually the worst thing you could’ve said.”
Alekxander looked murderous.
No seriously.
Actually murderous.
The temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees instantly.
Lucien noticed too.
“You see?” he said calmly.
“He still reacts the same way.”
I looked between them slowly.
“Oh my God.”
Cassian looked exhausted already.
“Please do not tell me this is some reincarnation love triangle situation.”
“Nobody say another word,” I begged.
Unfortunately, nobody listened to me.
Lucien’s gaze stayed on Alekxander.
“You always were possessive.”
The sound Alekxander made was genuinely dangerous.
I stepped between them immediately before someone died.
“Okay! Wonderful. We’re all emotionally unstable. Let’s regroup.”
Alekxander’s eyes snapped to mine instantly.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Ophelia.”
“You look one insult away from stabbing somebody.”
“He deserves it.”
“That may be true, but prison would be embarrassing for all of us.”
Cassian covered his mouth like he was trying not to laugh.
Lucien looked weirdly amused too.
Alekxander did not.
At all.
His gaze stayed locked on Lucien with terrifying intensity.
And suddenly I understood something.
This wasn’t jealousy.
Or maybe it was.
But underneath it.
Fear.
Again.
Always fear.
Like every new truth dragged him closer to losing me somehow.
I looked at him carefully.
And for one horrible second…
I remembered something.
Not fully.
Just a flash.
A hand covered in blood.
A voice saying my name.
Alekxander’s voice.
Then darkness.
Pain exploded behind my eyes so suddenly I gasped.
The room tilted violently.
“Ophelia!”
Alekxander caught me before I hit the floor.
The vision slammed into me hard.
Blood.
Screaming.
Cold stone floors.
And Alekxander kneeling beside a dying girl.
Begging her not to leave him.
I choked on air and grabbed his coat tightly.
His face hovered above me, pale with panic.
“What did you see?”
I stared at him in horror.
Because the dying girl.
Looked exactly like me.