Luca was still standing before the bathroom mirror when he heard the knock.
He didn’t answer immediately.
His reflection looked back at him with the same face he had worn for years, but the scar beneath his collarbone seemed darker than usual.
He touched it with two fingers, pressing lightly against the old mark.
He remembered the night he got it.
He remembered everything.
That was the problem.
People sometimes spoke about the past as though it became softer with enough time.
Luca had never experienced that luxury.
His memories did not fade simply because centuries had passed.
Some were distant, some blurred around the edges, but the important ones remained exactly where he had left them.
What had changed recently was not the memories.
It was how often they came looking for him.
Another knock sounded.
“Luca?”
Seren.
He lowered his hand.
“Come in.”
The door opened and Seren stepped inside carrying a cup of tea.
She took one look at him and stopped.
“You’re awake.”
“I noticed.”
“You know what I mean.”
Luca gave her a faint smile.
Seren walked closer and handed him the cup.
“You had another one.”
It wasn’t a question.
Luca accepted the tea.
“Yes.”
Seren studied his face.
“The same memory?”
“No.”
“Something from the beginning?”
He nodded.
Seren’s expression softened.
She knew him well enough not to ask what he had seen unless he offered it himself.
Luca took a sip.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then Seren said, “I thought they had stopped.”
“They did.”
Her eyebrows drew together.
“For how long?”
“A very long time.”
“And now?”
Luca looked at the steam rising from the cup.
“Since I met Zina.”
Seren’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“They came back because of her?”
“I don’t know if they came back because of her.”
“Then what do you know?”
“That they became frequent after I met her.”
He set the cup down on the counter.
“I’ve lived with those memories for centuries, Seren. There were years when I barely thought about them. Then I met that girl, and suddenly I’m seeing pieces of my past in my sleep again.”
Seren leaned against the counter.
“Pieces you had forgotten?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Pieces I had stopped remembering.”
She considered that.
There was a difference.
Luca could still remember the ancient house.
The voices.
The arguments.
The love that had existed before everything went wrong.
He remembered the people.
He remembered the betrayal.
He remembered the loss.
But memory was strange, even for someone like him.
A person could carry something for centuries without touching it, burying it so deeply that it became part of the foundation rather than something consciously examined.
Zina had disturbed that foundation.
He just didn’t know why.
“You’re going to tell her,” Seren said.
“I will.”
“When?”
“Not yet.”
Seren sighed.
“You always say that when you already know the answer.”
Luca smiled.
“I haven’t decided everything.”
“You have decided enough.”
Before he could respond, another voice came from the hallway.
“Has he eaten?”
Adrian appeared in the doorway.
Seren glanced at him. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“No.”
Adrian looked directly at Luca.
“Of course not.”
“I am standing right here.”
“I can see that.”
Adrian walked in, carrying a book under one arm and an apple in his other hand.
He tossed the apple toward Luca.
Luca caught it without looking.
“You’re becoming predictable.”
“And you’re becoming impossible.”
“I’ve always been impossible.”
“True.”
Adrian dropped the book onto the counter.
Unlike Seren, who tended to notice details and quietly put things in order, Adrian had never met a problem he didn’t want to confront head-on.
He asked too many questions, spoke when everyone else was thinking, and had an irritating habit of making Luca laugh in situations where laughter was inappropriate.
He looked at the scar on Luca’s chest.
“Another memory?”
Luca nodded.
Adrian’s expression changed.
“You’ve been having them more often.”
“Yes.”
“Since Zina.”
“Yes.”
Adrian glanced at Seren.
“So it’s definitely connected.”
“Connected doesn’t mean caused.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The difference is that I don’t know what she is connected to.”
Adrian frowned.
“Do you think she’s in danger?”
Luca’s answer was immediate.
“Yes.”
Seren straightened.
“From what?”
“I don’t know.”
Adrian stared at him.
“Luca.”
“I said I don’t know.”
He picked up the apple but didn’t bite into it.
“There is something around her.”
Seren’s voice became quieter.
“You felt it at the mansion.”
“Yes.”
“And again when you met her.”
“Yes.”
“What does it feel like?”
Luca thought about that.
“The first time, I thought it was hostile.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m not sure.”
“Why?”
“Because whatever it is, it isn’t hunting her.”
Adrian folded his arms.
“Then what is it doing?”
“Watching.”
Seren’s eyes narrowed.
“Watching her?”
“Watching everything around her.”
“Protecting her?”
“Possibly.”
Adrian looked unconvinced.
“You don’t sound certain.”
“Because I’m not.”
Luca walked toward the bedroom.
“That’s why I haven’t told Zina.”
Adrian followed.
“You’re afraid she’ll panic.”
“No. I’m afraid she’ll start looking for answers before she understands the questions.”
Seren came behind them.
“And you think she isn’t ready?”
“She isn’t.”
“You seem very certain about that.”
“I met her.”
Adrian gave him a look.
“That isn’t an explanation.”
“It is to me.”
Luca stopped beside the large windows overlooking the grounds.
“She is already trying to hold together her father’s company, deal with her brothers, accept a marriage she never planned for and understand why people she has never met seem to know things about her life.”
He turned toward them.
“If I add ancient bloodlines and things that should not exist, she won’t know which danger deserves her attention first.”
Seren nodded slowly.
“So you wait.”
“I wait.”
“And hope?”
Luca smiled without humor.
“I don’t hope.”
Adrian snorted.
“You absolutely hope.”
“I tolerate possibilities.”
“That is the oldest way of saying hope I’ve ever heard.”
Luca laughed.
Seren shook her head.
“You two are exhausting.”
The moment passed.
Then Adrian’s expression became serious.
“Where were you last night?”
Luca looked at him.
“You know where.”
“The prison?”
“Yes.”
Seren’s face tightened.
“You went back there?”
“I needed to see something.”
“You said you wouldn’t go alone.”
“I didn’t need anyone.”
“That isn’t the point.”
Luca sighed.
“I know.”
Seren folded her arms.
“Then tell us what happened.”
Luca was quiet for a moment.
Then he crossed the room and opened a locked drawer beneath an old writing desk.
He removed a small cloth bundle.
Adrian watched him carefully.
Luca placed it on the table and unfolded the cloth.
A piece of black stone rested inside.
It was no bigger than the palm of his hand.
A thin golden line ran across its surface.
Seren stepped closer.
“What is that?”
“A piece of the first seal.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“You broke it?”
“No.”
“Then how did it come off?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca touched the edge of the stone.
“It was lying beneath the western arch.”
“The western arch is part of the first ring.”
“Yes.”
“I thought the first ring was intact.”
“It was.”
“Was?”
Luca nodded.
“When I went there, the outer wall was still standing. The door was still sealed. Nothing had opened.”
Adrian looked confused.
“Then what broke?”
Luca turned the stone over.
On its underside was a small circular impression surrounded by seven tiny grooves.
“This.”
Seren leaned closer.
“What am I looking at?”
“The lock mark.”
“The seal has a lock?”
“Seven.”
Adrian stared at him.
“Seven locks.”
“Seven commands,” Luca corrected.
“The stone is only the anchor.”
Seren looked from the fragment to Luca.
“What does the first command do?”
“It keeps what was buried there from crossing the boundary.”
“And the second?”
“Prevents the prison from being found.”
“The third?”
“Stops anything inside from reaching beyond the walls.”
Adrian’s eyes moved to the fourth groove.
“And that one?”
Luca’s expression became harder.
“The fourth prevents something outside from answering.”
Seren understood immediately.
“You said something has been watching Zina.”
“I said I don’t know what it is.”
“And now you’re telling us the seal has a command designed to stop the outside from answering whatever is inside.”
Luca nodded.
Adrian looked at the golden line running through the stone.
“What happened when you touched it?”
“It warmed.”
“That’s all?”
“No.”
Luca’s fingers tightened slightly around the fragment.
“The gold moved.”
Seren went still.
“Moved how?”
“It spread through the crack.”
He looked down at the stone.
“Like a vein.”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“Was it glowing?”
“Not exactly.”
“What then?”
“It was responding.”
“To you?”
Luca shook his head.
“No.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know.”
He placed the stone back inside the cloth.
“But I heard something.”
Seren’s eyes sharpened.
“What?”
“A knock.”
Adrian stared at him.
“From inside the prison?”
Luca nodded.
“One knock.”
“When?”
“After the stone warmed.”
“Did you open the door?”
“No.”
“Did you answer it?”
Luca looked at him.
“No.”
Adrian exhaled slowly.
Seren stepped closer to Luca.
“So the first seal isn’t broken.”
“No.”
“But something has touched it.”
“Yes.”
“And the lock responded.”
“Yes.”
“To something outside.”
Luca’s gaze drifted toward the window.
“That’s what worries me.”
Seren reached for his hand.
“You think it’s connected to Zina.”
“I think the timing is too precise to ignore.”
Adrian picked up the book from the counter.
“And your dreams?”
Luca looked down at the old scar on his chest.
“They became frequent when I met her.”
He paused.
“Last night, I remembered something I haven’t seen in centuries.”
Seren squeezed his hand.
“What?”
Luca didn’t answer immediately.
He remembered a house filled with laughter.
A family before grief had entered it.
He remembered a promise.
He remembered a voice warning that something would come.
And for the first time in centuries, he remembered the sound of the first seal being closed.
His gaze returned to the cloth-covered stone.
“I remembered the day that prison was made.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“And?”
Luca’s eyes remained fixed on the bundle.
“I remembered who was there.”
Seren waited.
“Who?”
Luca slowly shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Adrian groaned.
“Of course.”
Luca smiled faintly.
“You’ll survive.”
“I’ve survived you this long.”
Seren looked between them.
“Both of you are going to give me a headache.”
Luca laughed.
But when he looked back toward the table, the smile was gone.
He could still feel the warmth of the stone against his palm.