FAZER LOGINCHAPTER 50The Memory He Was Afraid OfMIYAKAFor a moment, I forgot how to breathe.My father stood on the other side of the tunnel, older than the man I remembered, thinner than the man who had carried me on his shoulders when I was little, but unmistakably him.The same eyes.The same hands.The same small scar above his eyebrow that I used to touch whenever I was five and wanted to make sure he was really there.Except those eyes weren't looking at me the way a father's eyes should look at his daughter.They were afraid.Not afraid that someone would hurt me.Afraid of me.I felt something inside my chest collapse."You."The word came out so quietly that even I almost didn't hear it.My father didn't answer.He simply looked at me.And somehow that hurt more than if he had denied being there.All those years.All those nights when I had cried because I believed he was gone.All those questions I had buried because everyone told me that some answers were better left alone.He had
CHAPTER 49The Woman Who Called Me SisterMIYAKAFor several seconds, I couldn't understand what I was looking at.The woman stood in the doorway with one hand resting against the frame, as though she had been waiting there long before we arrived. The dim light behind her wasn't strong enough to show every detail of her face, but it showed enough.The curve of her cheek.The shape of her eyes.The dark hair falling loosely around her shoulders.Even the slight tilt of her head when she looked at me.I knew that face.Or at least, I knew the face it belonged to.A face I had spent the last several years believing existed only in old photographs and memories that were never quite complete.Seraphina.My sister.Except the woman standing in front of me was older.Much older than the girl in the photograph.She looked like someone who had lived through things that had changed her from the inside out.Her eyes were the same.That was what frightened me.I knew those eyes.I had seen them b
CHAPTER 48The Ones Who Found UsMIYAKAThe doors slammed shut one after another.The sound traveled through the underground passage like a warning.One.Then another.Then another.Then silence.I stood frozen.The man's words kept repeating inside my head.They finally found you.My fingers were still wrapped around Moises's hand, but I could barely feel them anymore.I looked behind me.The tunnel we had entered through was sealed.The darkness ahead of us was no longer empty.There were sounds coming from somewhere beyond the walls.Footsteps.Several of them.Slow.Controlled.Whoever was coming wasn't rushing.They didn't need to.They knew we had nowhere to go.My mother moved closer to me."Don't move."Her voice was barely a whisper.I looked at her."You know who they are."She didn't answer."Mom."Her eyes remained fixed on the darkness."Please."Finally, she looked at me."They're the people I've been running from."My chest tightened."For how long?"She swallowed."Sin
CHAPTER 47The Promise Beneath the TreeMIYAKAThe fourth knock echoed through the tunnel.I didn't move.None of us did.For a moment, the entire world seemed to have narrowed down to the stone beneath my feet and the sound that had come from somewhere beneath it.Three knocks.Then a fourth.A pattern.A warning.Or perhaps a greeting.I couldn't tell anymore.My breathing became shallow as I stared at the floor.The voice came again.Soft.Almost gentle."Aria."My heart slammed against my ribs.Nobody had called me that with familiarity before.Not like that.Not like they were speaking to someone they had known for years.I slowly lowered myself until my knees touched the cold stone.My fingers hovered over the floor."I remember you," I whispered.The words left my mouth before I could stop them.My mother made a frightened sound behind me."Miyaka, don't."I looked over my shoulder.Her face had gone pale."Why?"She took a step toward me."Because remembering isn't always the
CHAPTER 46The Truth Beneath My NameMIYAKAThe man's voice remained inside the tunnel long after the cassette stopped playing.I've been waiting for you to remember that you're mine.I couldn't move.I couldn't breathe properly.For several seconds, all I could hear was the faint humming of the cassette player and the uneven sound of my own breathing. My fingers were still wrapped around the edge of the metal box, but I had stopped feeling the coldness of it. My entire body felt strangely distant, as though I were standing somewhere outside myself, watching another woman receive the news that she wasn't who she believed she was.I looked at my mother.She wasn't looking at me.That frightened me more than anything the recording had said.My mother had spent years being the strongest person in my childhood memories. Even when I was young, I remembered her as someone who could make fear disappear simply by holding my hand. She had always known what to say when thunderstorms frightened
CHAPTER 45Welcome Back, AriaMIYAKAThe word followed me through the darkness.Aria.It echoed against the stone walls.It echoed inside my head.And somehow, hearing that name spoken by a voice I couldn't see felt more frightening than hearing my own name.I stood completely still.My mother was crying.Moises was staring at me.Jason had lowered his flashlight.Nobody seemed willing to speak.Then the child's laughter came again.Soft.Distant.Almost playful.I turned toward the darkness."Who said that?"No answer.I took a step forward.Moises immediately caught my hand."Don't."I looked at him."Someone knows that name.""I know.""Someone called me Aria.""I heard.""Then we need to find them."His fingers tightened around mine."Not if it's a trap."I stared into the darkness."What if it isn't?"Moises didn't answer.Because neither of us knew.And that was becoming the most terrifying part of all of this.For years, I had believed my biggest mystery was Moises.Why he left







