Chapter 8.The person who was there

I kept thinking about what Adrian had just told me. Someone had been there the night Seraphina died, someone who knew what really happened. Until now, I had believed I already knew how her story ended. Adrian had ordered her death, and that was the truth I had carried with me since waking up in this world.

But Adrian was standing in front of me, telling me that he knew someone who had witnessed it.

“Who was there?” I asked.

He didn't answer right away. His attention shifted toward my father, and from the way they looked at each other, I could tell there was something neither of them wanted to say in front of me.

“Not here,” Adrian finally said.

“Why not?”

“Because we don't know who is listening.”

I glanced toward the study door. It was locked, but that didn't make me feel any safer. After everything that had happened, I was beginning to understand that a locked door didn't mean much when the people hunting me seemed to know where I was every time.

My father walked over and checked the lock himself.

“No one can hear us from outside.”

“That doesn't mean we're alone,” Adrian replied.

He reached inside his coat and brought out a folded piece of parchment. He handed it to my father, who opened it carefully.

I moved closer to see what was written.

There was a list of names on the page. Most of them meant nothing to me, but then I saw one that made me stop.

Seraphina Vale.

My name had been written near the top of the list.

Beside it was another name.

Adrian Blackthorne.

I looked between the two names and then at Adrian.

“Why are our names on this?”

He took the parchment from my father's hands.

“Because this isn't a list of people connected to the Order.”

“Then what is it?”

“A list of people whose fates have been altered.”

The words immediately reminded me of what my father had told me earlier about souls returning when their fate was disturbed.

I pointed toward the parchment. “Is this connected to the keys?”

Adrian's expression changed.

“You know about the keys?”

I realized my mistake as soon as the words left my mouth.

My father gave me a warning look, but Adrian was already studying me.

“I heard about them,” I said.

He didn't look convinced, but he didn't question me either.

Instead, he pointed toward my name.

“Your name appeared on this list twelve years ago.”

I stared at the parchment.

“Twelve years ago? But I was alive.”

“You were.”

His answer only made the situation stranger.

“What does that mean?”

Adrian took a breath before answering. “It means someone knew your fate long before any of this happened.”

I felt a strange heaviness settle inside me.

My fate had been written before I even knew there was something wrong with it.

“What else does the document say?”

Adrian hesitated.

“Your death was supposed to happen during the Moon Festival.”

The room seemed to become quieter.

That was exactly how I remembered the story.

The Moon Festival was when Seraphina was supposed to die.

“That hasn't happened yet,” I said.

“No,” Adrian replied. “It hasn't.”

I couldn't help wondering what that meant for everything else I remembered. If my death was still supposed to happen on the same night, then maybe changing small things wouldn't be enough. Perhaps the story was still trying to force me toward the ending I had been brought here to escape.

I turned toward Adrian.

“If you knew I was supposed to die then, why did you accuse me of trying to kill you?”

His expression tightened.

“Because someone wanted me to believe you were responsible.”

“So you believed them?”

“At the time, I believed the evidence.”

“The dagger?”

“Yes.”

“And the person who attacked you?”

“I didn't know who they were.”

“But you still blamed me.”

Adrian was quiet for a moment.

Then he said, “I was wrong.”

I hadn't expected that answer.

He could have defended himself or blamed the circumstances, but he didn't.

“I should have questioned everything before accusing you,” he continued. “The attack happened inside my room, the dagger had your name engraved on it, and someone had carefully arranged the evidence so that you would look guilty.”

I lowered my eyes.

Part of me was still angry with him. I hadn't forgotten how frightened I had been when he accused me, or how easily he had looked at me as though I were already guilty.

But hearing him admit that he had been wrong made it harder to hold on to that anger.

“You still frightened me,” I said.

“I know.”

My father's voice interrupted us.

“There is another question we need to answer. Who changed the record?”

Neither Adrian nor I had an answer.

I looked down at the parchment again. Someone had recorded my death twelve years ago, long before I had ever heard of Aveloria. Someone had also written Adrian's name beside mine.

If our fates had been altered, then someone had been watching both of us for a very long time.

A faint sound came from the corridor.

My father immediately turned toward the door while Adrian moved closer to it.

He opened it carefully.

No one was there.

Something small lay on the floor.

Adrian bent down and picked it up.

It was a silver pendant shaped like a crescent moon surrounded by a circle.

The Order of the Veiled Moon.

I reached for it, but Adrian stopped me.

“Don't touch it.”

“Why?”

“We don't know where it came from.”

I watched him examine the pendant before noticing something engraved on the back.

My name.

SERAPHINA VALE.

I stepped closer.

There was another line beneath it, so small that I almost missed it.

Adrian turned the pendant slightly, allowing the light from the candle to fall across the engraving.

Four words appeared beneath my name.

You have already died once.

For several seconds, I could only stare at the message.

I had known that.

At least, I thought I had.

I had died in my previous world before waking up here. But the words didn't seem to be talking about that death.

They were talking about Seraphina.

The girl whose body I was living in.

The girl who was supposed to die during the Moon Festival.

My father's face had gone pale.

I turned toward him.

“Father?”

He didn't answer.

His eyes remained fixed on the pendant, and there was some

thing in his expression that frightened me more than the message itself.

He knew what it meant.

“You already knew, didn't you?”

My father finally looked at me.

And this time, he couldn't hide the fear in his eyes