Chapter Fourteen:

Aurora’s POV

"You’re very quiet."

Damien’s voice scrapes against the silence inside the car. He doesn’t look at me. He’s staring straight ahead, his hands relaxed on the steering wheel, but I can see the muscle in his jaw jumping. He’s fuming. I can feel the heat coming off him in waves, and it makes the air in the leather interior feel like it’s running out.

"I’m tired, Damien. It was a long night."

"It was a strange night," he corrects. He slows down as we hit a red light, finally turning his head to look at me. His eyes are dark, searching my face for a crack I refuse to give him. "You spent a lot of time with Sebastian Reed. What did he want?"

"Business. I told you, he’s interested in the portfolio."

Damien laughs. It’s a dry, ugly sound that sets my teeth on edge. "He’s a Reed, Aurora. They don’t just take an 'interest' in student portfolios. They swallow companies whole. Why you? Why tonight?"

"Maybe you should ask him."

The light turns green. Damien doesn't move. A car honks behind us, but he doesn't seem to hear it. He just keeps staring at me, his eyes narrowing until they’re just slits of suspicion.

"I’m asking you."

"And I gave you an answer." I reach for the door handle, my heart starting a slow, heavy thud against my ribs. "Are we going to sit here all night, or are you going to drive?"

He stares at me for three more seconds, long enough for the car behind us to blare its horn again, before he finally hits the gas. The car jerks forward, the tires screeching against the asphalt. He’s driving too fast. The streetlights are blurring past the window in long, yellow streaks. 

My hand tightens on my clutch. My phone is inside. I want to reach for it, to see if the messenger has sent anything else, but I can't move. If I show any weakness now, he’ll pounce. I know how Damien works. He feeds on hesitation.

"I don't like being made a fool, Aurora," he says, his voice dropping to that low, dangerous register he used right before things got bad in my first life. "At the table, with the investors, you made it sound like I was stealing your work."

"I said ownership matters. If that makes you feel like a thief, maybe that's something you need to look at."

The car swerves. Just a little. He’s losing his grip.

"Watch your tone," he snaps. "I’ve spent three years building a future for us. Everything I do, I do for you. And you repay me by flirting with a man who would crush you without a second thought?"

Flirting. Is that what he thinks that was? I want to scream. I want to tell him that I’ve already seen the "future" he built for me. I want to tell him I remember the cold concrete and the sound of his footsteps walking away while I died.

But I breathe. I force my fingers to relax. I have to play the part for a little longer.

"I wasn't flirting."

"Then what were you doing in the back offices with him? I saw you go back there. And I saw him follow you." I freeze. He saw us. My mind races, trying to find a lie that fits. "I went to find a restroom. He was just there. We didn't even speak for more than a minute."

"You're lying."

He turns onto a darker side street, away from the main road that leads to my apartment. My stomach drops. This isn't the way home. "Where are you going, Damien?" "We need to talk. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere we won't be interrupted by billionaires or mysterious text messages."

He knows about the messages. My blood goes cold. I look at him, really look at him, and I see the desperation behind the anger. He’s losing control of the narrative, and a man like Damien is at his most dangerous when he’s scared.

"Turn the car around," I say, my voice steady even though my insides are shaking.

"No." "Damien, turn the car around right now."

He ignores me, pushing the needle on the speedometer higher. We’re heading toward the industrial district, a place full of empty warehouses and dead ends. My mind flashes back to my death, the isolation, the lack of witnesses. Is this happening again? Already? I reach into my bag, fumbling for my phone, but Damien’s hand shoots out and grabs my wrist. His grip is like iron.

"Give it to me," he snarls.

"Let go of me!"

"The phone, Aurora. Give it to me now!"

We’re struggling, the car veering toward the curb. I’m pulling back, trying to keep my phone away from him, when a pair of blinding white lights appears in the rearview mirror. A car is behind us. Moving fast. It’s gaining on us with a roar that drowns out the sound of our breathing. 

Damien glances at the mirror, his face twisting in rage. "Who the hell is that?" He tries to speed up, but the other car is relentless. It swerves to the side, pulling up level with us. I look out the window and catch a glimpse of a sleek, black SUV. The windows are tinted, but I don't need to see the driver to know who it is. 

I know that silhouette. I know that energy.

Sebastian.

Damien jerks the wheel, trying to run the SUV off the road, but the black vehicle doesn't flinch. It slams into the side of our car with a deafening crunch of metal. My head hits the window, stars exploding in my vision. 

Damien screams something. I can't hear over the sound of the tires screaming. The car spins, the world turning upside down for a heartbeat before we skid to a halt, the front bumper buried in a chain-link fence. Smoke starts to hiss from the engine. I’m gasping, my lungs burning, trying to claw my way out of the seatbelt. Damien is slumped over the wheel, groaning. 

The passenger door is ripped open. 

A hand reaches in, large, steady, and certain. 

"Get out," Sebastian says. 

His face is a mask of cold fury, his eyes scanning me for injuries. He doesn't look at Damien. He doesn't look at the wreck. He just grabs my hand and pulls me out of the car and into the cool night air. I’m shaking so hard I can barely stand. He catches me, his arms wrapping around me for a split second before he sets me on my feet. 

"Are you hurt?" he asks.

"I don't think so."

He turns then, looking at the car where Damien is starting to sit up. Sebastian starts toward him, his gait slow and predatory. 

"Sebastian, wait," I whisper, reaching for his arm. He stops, but he doesn't look back. His voice is a low growl that makes the hair on my arms stand up. "He was going to kill you, Aurora. Just like he did before. "My heart stops, just like he did before.

I stare at his back, the world going silent around me. Sebastian doesn't move. He’s still looking at Damien, but those five words are hanging in the air between us like a confession. 

He knows. 

He knows I died.

Sebastian just saved Aurora from a crash that felt way too much like her first death. But as he stands over a broken Damien, he lets slip the one thing he was never supposed to say. 

He didn't just find out she was reborn. He remembers it too.