Chapter 3

"Just leave me alone," I said, my voice coming out smaller than she intended. "I need to use the bathroom, and then I'm getting back on the bus. You can tell our fathers you kept an eye on me like a good little soldier."

I turned to walk away, but his voice stopped me.

"The dreams," he said quietly. "You're having them too, aren't you?"

Her blood turned to ice water in her veins. I spun around so fast she nearly lost her balance, my heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. "What did you just say?"

Thomas was staring at me with an intensity that made my skin crawl. No, not crawl - tingle. Like electricity was dancing across my nerve endings. "The woman with the dagger. The guard who died protecting you. Lady Serenity."

The world seemed to tilt sideways. I could taste copper in her mouth, could feel the phantom weight of that heavy vintage dress against my legs. "How do you know that name?"

"Because I was there," he said, and his voice sounded different somehow. Older. Sadder. "I was the lord who was supposed to find you and keep you safe. But I was too late. I'm always too late."

“Yeah, sure you were, you can’t even stand to be in the same room as me, and now you're trying to make it sound like we’re soul mates. Yeah, sure, totally believe you, Thomas. Remember, I’m just some ugly bitch that you’ve been forced to be with you don’t want me, why start now? If you don’t mind, I need to go to the bathroom before we need to get back on that bus.”

Thomas's face hardened. I watched something shift in his expression, the mask of the popular boy slipping to reveal something older, something wounded.

"You think I don't know how this sounds?" he said, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "You think I want to be having these... these memories or visions or whatever the hell they are? You think I enjoy waking up in a cold sweat every night remembering watching you die?"

Serenity stepped back, her shoulders bumping against the bathroom door. The way he said it, the raw pain in his voice - made her stomach twist into knots.

"Louis is having them too," Thomas continued, glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening. "That's why we're both here. Not because of our fathers. Not because of some stupid contract. We need to figure out what's happening to us."

A chill ran down her spine despite the warm day. The dream, the memory, whatever it was, felt too real to dismiss anymore. The terror, the smell of smoke, the rough fabric of the dress against her skin. And now Thomas knew details she hadn't told anyone.

"I don't understand what's happening," I admitted, her voice barely audible. "I thought I was going crazy."

Thomas laughed, but there was no humour in it. "Join the club. Louis and I have been comparing notes for months. The dreams started on our sixteenth birthdays. When did yours begin?"

"Last week." I swallowed hard. "After my sixteenth birthday."

His eyes widened slightly. "That can't be a coincidence."

"This is insane," I said, running trembling fingers through her hair. "Reincarnation? Past lives? We sound like we should be on some late-night paranormal show."

"I know how it sounds." Thomas's voice softened. "But you saw it on the bus too, didn't you? The double vision?"

I felt her chest tighten. I hadn't told anyone about seeing two versions of herself, of Thomas, of Louis. The vintage clothes overlap with their modern ones.

"Why would you say that about me?" I asked suddenly, changing the subject. "Three years ago. The black book. The ugly—"

"I was a stupid kid trying to look cool," he interrupted, shame colouring his cheeks. "I didn't even know you then. Just your name, and that our parents had this arrangement."

I looked away, unable to meet his gaze. "But you never corrected it. For three years, you've barely spoken to me."

"Because every time I tried, you looked at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of your shoe," Thomas said. "I figured you'd heard what I said. I was too embarrassed to bring it up."

The bathroom door opened behind me, making her jump. A group of giggling ninth-graders pushed past, giving Thomas curious looks.

"We need to talk about this," Thomas said urgently. "We need answers, and I’d like to make things right between us.”

“Ok, I’m listening, Thomas, what do you want?” I asked, unsure I really wanted the answer.

Thomas glanced around the rest stop area, watching their classmates mill about with their phones and snacks, oblivious to the tension crackling between them. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and she could see the uncertainty in his posture, so different from his usual confident swagger around school.

"I want to understand what's happening to us," he said finally. "And I want to apologise properly. Not just for what I said when I was thirteen, but for how I've treated you since then." He paused, running his thumb along the strap of his backpack. "Louis thinks we're connected somehow. That these dreams, these memories, they're not random."

I felt her heart skip a beat. The idea that Louis was involved, too, made everything feel more real, more terrifying. "What kind of connected?"

"We don't know yet. But in the dreams, in whatever that other life was, we cared about each other. We were supposed to..." He trailed off, colour rising in his cheeks.

"Supposed to what?"

Thomas looked directly at her then, and I saw something in his eyes I'd never noticed before—vulnerability. "We were supposed to get married. Not because our parents arranged it, but because we chose each other."

The words hit me like a physical blow. I pressed her back harder against the bathroom door, needing the solid support. "That's impossible. You can't stand me."

"I thought I couldn't," he admitted quietly. "But lately, when I look at you, I get this feeling like I'm remembering something I've forgotten. Like there's this huge piece missing from my life, and you're..." He shook his head. "This sounds crazy."

"Everything about this is crazy," I whispered. Her palms were sweating, and I wiped them on her jeans. "So what do you want me to do about it?"