Chapter 4

"Help us figure it out. Louis has been researching past lives, reincarnation, all that stuff. He thinks if we work together, we might be able to understand what happened to us. Why we're remembering now."

I thought about the guard who'd died protecting me, the way his blood had looked so real, so vivid. The terror I'd felt running through those streets. "And if we can't figure it out?"

Thomas's jaw tightened. "Then we keep having nightmares for the rest of our lives, I guess."

The teacher's whistle blew across the rest stop, signalling it was time to get back on the bus. I could hear my classmates groaning and gathering their things, but I couldn't move. My legs felt like jelly.

"I need time to think," I said.

"We don't have much time. The dreams are getting stronger, aren't they?" Thomas stepped closer, and I caught a whiff of his cologne, something woody and expensive. "Last night I dreamed I was holding you while you died. I could feel your blood on my hands."

I shuddered at his words, “And you whispered, I’ll find you in our next life, my love, and nothing will keep us apart, before you kissed me.”

The blood drained from Thomas's face. He stared at me with wide eyes, his mouth slightly open, as if I'd just spoken words that had been locked away in his memory. I watched his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed hard.

"You remember that too," he said, and it wasn't a question.

The whistle blew again, more insistently this time. Around them, students were trudging back toward the bus, complaining about the heat and the long ride ahead of them. But I couldn't move. Her legs felt rooted to the spot, her heart hammering so hard I was sure Thomas could hear it.

"How is this possible?" I whispered, her voice barely audible over the chatter of my classmates. The memory of his lips against mine, desperate and salt-tinged with tears, felt more real than the hot asphalt beneath my feet.

Thomas ran both hands through his hair, completely messing it up. "I don't know. But Louis thinks..."

"There you are!"

I jumped at the sound of Louis's voice. He was jogging toward them, his usually perfect hair dishevelled, his face flushed with what looked like panic. When he reached us, he bent over, hands on his knees, breathing hard.

"We need to get on the bus," he said between gasps. "Now."

Thomas frowned. "What's wrong?"

Louis straightened up, and I saw something in his eyes that made my stomach clench with fear. "I just had another one. A vision, or whatever. But this time I was awake."

The world seemed to tilt sideways. I grabbed Thomas's arm without thinking, my fingers digging into the fabric of his sleeve. The contact sent a jolt through me, not unpleasant, but startling in its familiarity.

"What did you see?" Thomas asked, his voice tight.

Louis glanced around, making sure no one was close enough to overhear. "The woman with the dagger. She's not done with us. She's coming back."

A chill ran down my spine despite the warm afternoon sun. The memory of those cold, calculating eyes made her skin crawl. "That's impossible. She's dead. We saw her die."

"Death doesn't seem to be stopping any of us," Louis said grimly. "We need to talk. All of us. Tonight."

The teacher's voice boomed across the rest stop. "Final boarding call! Everyone on the bus now!"

I looked between Thomas and Louis, seeing her own fear reflected in their faces. Whatever was happening to them, it was far from over.

As we walked towards the bus, I was meant to marry Thomas, with the same sort of agreement between our Fathers? Louis was your best friend, and that old woman wanted me to marry Louis instead, but then who is this Violet? Although something tells me she was your sister in that past life, Louis. But in this life you're an only child, so how does that work?”

Louis stumbled, nearly tripping over his own feet. I watched the colour drain from his face as completely as if someone had pulled a plug. His mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air.

"How did you..." he started, then stopped. His eyes darted between Thomas and me, wild with something that looked like recognition mixed with terror. "Violet was... she was my twin sister."

The words hit me like a physical blow. I felt Thomas's muscles tense beneath my grip on his arm.

"But that's impossible," I said, even as the certainty of it settled in my chest like a stone. "You don't have a sister. You've never had a sister."

Louis shook his head slowly, as if trying to clear it. "Not in this life. But in the dreams, in the memories... she had my eyes. The same green eyes. She used to braid flowers in her hair and sing while she worked in the garden." His voice cracked. "She died of fever when we were seventeen, about an hour before that chase."

“Well, this shit just gets weirder, so I was chased down and hunted on behalf of a woman that had already passed away? And in the end, we died for what?” I asked as I took the first steps on the bus. “ Think I was meant to be going to some sort of formal dinner? I was in a carriage when we were attacked, and my guard died, so I could run. Both of you would have been at the dinner when the attack started. I was on my own beyond my guard.”

Thomas and Louis exchanged a look that made my skin prickle with unease.

"That's what we need to figure out," Thomas said quietly as we climbed the bus steps. "Why were we targeted? What was so important about that night?"

The bus was already crowded, the air inside stuffy and thick with the smell of teenage sweat and cheap body spray. I slid into an empty seat near the back, and to my surprise, both boys squeezed in beside me, Thomas in the middle, Louis on the aisle. It was a tight fit, but somehow I didn't mind the press of Thomas's thigh against mine.