Antonella’s POVThe forest stretched endlessly ahead of us, a sea of green that swallowed the morning mist and muffled every sound. We had been moving since dawn, following the faint pull of energy Sybil had traced on the map. The ground was soft beneath our boots, damp from last night’s rain, and the air tasted of pine and iron.Kira walked ahead of me, eyes narrowed in concentration. She was always quiet during missions, her focus razor sharp. Jonas followed close behind, his movements easy but alert, his fingers brushing the hilts of the twin blades strapped to his sides.I carried a pack, but what weighed more than the supplies were the expectations. Damian’s instructions echoed in my head: Get in, get them, and bring them b
Mia’s POVThe great hall was silent after the last vision thread vanished. The magic that had filled the room—a tapestry of past, present, and possible futures—was gone now, leaving behind a residue that clung to the air like mist. My chest rose and fell with heavy, deliberate breaths as the enormity of what we had just witnessed began to settle in.No one moved.Damian stood at the far end of the table, hands pressed flat against the surface, his jaw tight. Around us, the hybrids shifted uneasily. Some rubbed at their arms as if trying to wipe away the sensation of those vision threads brushing against their skin. Others just stared, eyes wide and unblinking.The council chamber suddenly felt too small for the weight we
Mia’s POVI dreamed of a girl with no name.She stood in the courtyard of the old palace, barefoot, wrapped in white thread that clung to her like spiderwebs. Her face was blank—not emotionless, but literally blank. No eyes. No nose. No mouth. And yet, when she looked at me, I felt like I was being judged.She raised her hand.And in the silence between heartbeats, I heard a voice not spoken aloud."You forgot me."I jolted awake, heart hammering. Damian’s hand rested on my back in an instant.“Mia?”
Mia’s POVThe corridors of the palace no longer echoed with footsteps. They echoed with memories. Some were mine. Some were not.I walked past a mirror and saw myself stop—but I hadn’t stopped. My reflection moved two seconds behind me, then two seconds ahead, then vanished entirely. My pulse didn’t rise anymore when it happened. We'd grown used to the impossible.Not numb. Just… resigned.Damian watched me from the end of the hallway. “You’re doing it again.”“Doing what?”“Walking like the floor might collapse under you.” His voice was low, quiet, familiar. “You haven’t trusted this place since the trial.”“I don’t trust myself,” I admitted.He walked toward me, slowly, deliberately. He’d learned that I needed slowness these days, even though I never said it aloud.“You don’t need to trust anything,” he said. “You just need to stand still long enough to feel the ground again.”I wanted to say something romantic, something smart. Instead, I stared at the marble under my feet and
"When silence falls, memory becomes the loudest voice."Mia’s POVI couldn’t remember what I’d had for breakfast.That wouldn’t have been strange—if I hadn’t remembered having it five minutes earlier. Eggs. Toast. A cup of bitter root-tea Damian had brewed.Except when I returned to the kitchen, the tea was untouched.The eggs were still in the pan, raw.And Damian wasn’t there.When I asked Sybil what time it was, she looked at me and said, “We already had breakfast together this morning.”But I hadn’t. Not yet. Or maybe… not this version of me.That was the third time this week.Damian’s POVMia wasn’t herself.Not in the way people mean when someone’s upset. She wasn’t irrational. She wasn’t angry.She was… flickering.Some mornings, she kissed me like we’d just reunited after battle. Other mornings, she looked at me like I was about to die. She was warm, then cold, then shaking from visions she couldn’t explain.I didn’t doubt her.After what we saw in the palace beneath the palac
“You cannot rewrite what hasn’t been written. But you can remember it differently.”Mia’s POVTime wasn’t holding still anymore. It was… slipping.Some hours repeated. Others vanished. Once, I walked into a room to see myself already leaving it. We locked eyes. Then everything went black.When I woke up, Damian was holding me. Again.“Second time this week,” he said quietly.I didn’t ask what he meant by “second.” Because I remembered only one.Nyx’s POV