Rain misted over the ruins by the time Lucien and the others circled back to the clearing. The fire had been relit, yet none of them had touched it.
Rowan knelt beside it. "Still no footsteps… this isn't natural."
Lucien's jaw was set tight. "No tricks. Someone wants us to believe we're being watched."
But it wasn't just a feeling anymore.
Liora turned abruptly, her breath catching. For just a moment, in the cracked mirror of a fallen relic—she had seen herself. But it wasn't her. The same hair. The same eyes. But darker. Older. Wearing a crooked smile she'd never made in her life.
She didn't tell the others.
Instead, she asked, "Lucien… what if someone is trying to take my place?"
He looked at her with unguarded stillness. "Then we'll find out who...and why."
In the Capital A Secret Chamber in the Eastern Wing
