جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 26

I used to believe that if I ever got another chance at life, I would know exactly what to do with it. I would avoid the people who hurt me, make different choices, and stay far away from anything that had once brought me pain. I had imagined my second life as a road I could follow toward a better ending, provided I remembered where the dangers were waiting.But the more time I spent in this unfamiliar version of my past, the more I realized that remembering the future did not mean I could control it.The first proof came that afternoon.I was crossing one of the palace courtyards when I saw Marielle standing near the steps, speaking to a servant. In my first life, I remembered this day clearly because something had happened shortly afterward that left me frightened and confused. Marielle had approached me with a warning about the royal household, then disappeared from my life before I could ask her what she meant.I had spent months wondering whether she knew something about Evander’s

I could not stop looking at the crescent.It was a small mark in the corner of an old report, so faint that someone unfamiliar with it might have mistaken it for a stain. Yet I knew I had seen it before, and the moment I recognized it, the uneasy feeling that had followed me since my rebirth returned with enough force to make my hands tremble.The same symbol had appeared on the warning connected to Caelan’s first life. It had also appeared on the message we received after I chose him at the ceremony. Now it was sitting in an archive report written long before either of us was born.I wanted to believe there was a reasonable explanation, something that would make the connection less frightening once we understood it.But Caelan’s reaction made that difficult.He had barely spoken since looking at the page. His expression remained controlled, but I had begun to recognize the small signs that appeared when he was troubled. His jaw tightened, and his fingers rested against the edge of th

I barely slept that night because Caelan’s confession kept returning to my mind.He had known a catastrophe was coming before the world fell apart, yet he had not known exactly when it would happen or how many lives would be lost. I understood that he had tried to find answers, but understanding his actions did not stop me from wondering whether my first life could have ended differently if I had known the truth.Perhaps I could have protected myself. Perhaps I could have stayed close to someone who would have helped me survive. Or perhaps the rejection would still have broken me, leaving me too weak to face the destruction that followed.The worst part was that I could not be certain of anything.By morning, I had decided that I would no longer allow my unanswered questions to control me. If Caelan had been investigating the threat before my death, then there had to be records, people, or decisions that could help us understand what happened.I found him in a private study shortly af