I Was Supposed to Be Dead

My eyes flew open.

For a few seconds, I did not move. I stared at the ceiling above me, confused by how clean and bright everything looked. There were no stone walls, no iron bars, no smell of blood or damp earth.

I tried to sit up, but dizziness hit me so quickly that I fell back against something soft.

A bed.

I froze.

The last thing I remembered was the courtyard, the execution platform, Kael standing beside Nadia, and Lucian forcing his way through the crowd. Then pain and darkness.

My hand flew to my neck.

Nothing.

No wound, No blood.

I touched my throat again, harder this time, as though the injury might appear if I searched long enough. When I found nothing, I slowly pushed myself upright.

The room around me came into focus, and my heart began to pound.

The pale curtains, the wooden vanity near the window, the faded blue rug beside the bed. Even the tiny crack in the wall above the wardrobe was exactly where I remembered it.

I knew this room.

I had spent years here before moving into Kael’s residence after becoming Luna.

For a moment, the only explanation I could think of was death.

Maybe the Moon Goddess had placed me somewhere familiar before deciding what came next. It made more sense than believing I had somehow survived an execution.

I remembered dying, I remembered the executioner moving behind me. I remembered Lucian shouting my name with a kind of desperation that still made no sense.

Why had he known me?

Why had he looked as though he had been searching for me?

I closed my eyes, trying to steady my breathing. When I opened them again, the room was still there, washed in morning sunlight. Dust floated through the air. Somewhere downstairs, I could hear voices and the faint sound of dishes being moved.

Everything felt too real.

I pulled back the blanket and looked down at myself. My hands were clean. There were no bruises around my wrists, no cuts from the chains, no marks left from the weeks I had spent imprisoned.

That frightened me more than the wounds would have.

I climbed out of bed and crossed the room toward the mirror. The woman staring back at me was me, but not the version who had died.

My face was softer, skin looked healthier. The exhaustion that had settled beneath my eyes during the final months of my life was gone. Even my hair was longer.

I raised a hand to my cheek.

The reflection did the same.

“No,” I whispered.

The word sounded small in the quiet room.

I turned away from the mirror and began searching for something that could explain what was happening. I opened drawers I had not touched in years, finding old perfume bottles, ribbons, pieces of jewelry, and small things I had forgotten I once owned.

Then I saw the bracelet.

My fingers stopped over it.

It was silver, delicate, with a tiny moon charm hanging from the chain.

Mira had given it to me for my twenty-second birthday.

I had worn it until the clasp broke.

That had been three years before my death.

A cold feeling crept through me as I picked it up.

Before I could think any further, someone knocked on the door.

“Selene?”

My entire body went still.

No.

The voice came again.

“Are you awake?”

My knees nearly gave out.

I knew that voice.

I had heard it laughing beside me countless times. I had heard it crying the night I told her Kael was my mate. I had heard it promise that she would prove my innocence when everyone else had turned against me.

The last time I had heard it, she had told me not to give up.

Three days later, they had brought me her body.

The door opened.

Mira Bennett walked in carrying a tray.

For several seconds, I could not breathe.

She looked exactly as I remembered her before everything went wrong. Her dark hair was tied carelessly behind her head, and she wore an expression somewhere between concern and irritation.

“Finally,” she said. “I thought you were planning to sleep through the whole morning.”

The bracelet slipped from my fingers and hit the floor.

Mira frowned.

“Selene?”

I could not answer.

She took a step toward me, and I instinctively moved back.

Her expression changed at once.

“What’s wrong?”

I stared at her face, searching for something that would prove she was not real. There was nothing strange about her.

“Mira?”

“Yes?”

My eyes burned.

I crossed the room before I could stop myself and grabbed her shoulders.

She gasped.

I touched her face, her arms, her hair, almost afraid she might disappear if I let go.

Mira stared at me like I had lost my mind.

“Selene, what are you doing?”

“You’re alive.”

She blinked. “Obviously.”

A broken laugh escaped me, and then, before I could stop it, I pulled her into my arms.

For a second, she stood stiffly in surprise. Then she hugged me back.

“What happened?” she asked, her voice softer now. “Did you have another nightmare?”

Another nightmare.

I buried my face against her shoulder and tried to breathe.

I could feel her heartbeat. I could smell the lavender soap she always used. I could hear the concern in her voice.

Mira was alive.

That meant something impossible had happened.

I pulled away from her.

“What day is it?”

She frowned. “What?”

“The date, Mira.”

“Selene, are you feeling sick?”

“Just tell me.”

She hesitated, then gave me the date.

The room seemed to tilt around me.

Three years.

Exactly three years before my execution.

I stared at her as the meaning settled over me. Kael had only recently become Alpha. Nadia was still pretending to be the perfect sister. Mira had not begun investigating anything. The accusations had not started.

Nothing had happened yet.

My hand went to my chest.

The mate bond was there.

I had forgotten what it felt like before Kael began tearing it apart.

A sick feeling settled in my stomach.

If this truly was the past, then Kael was alive too.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway.

Mira turned toward the door.

“Oh, that must be him.”

My blood went cold.

“Who?”

Before she could answer, the door opened.

Kael Mercer stood there.

He looked younger, there was no coldness in his face. His eyes found mine immediately, and warmth moved through the mate bond so strongly that it almost hurt.

Then he smiled.

The same smile I had once loved more than anything in the world.

“There you are,” he said as he stepped into the room. “I’ve been looking everywhere for my mate.”

I stared at him, unable to move.

Because the last time I had seen Kael Mercer, he had stood beside Nadia and watched me die.