The garden behind the Valmont estate had once been Lily’s favorite refuge. Ivy curled around the marble columns, and the fountains sang their soft, secret music. She used to come here to escape prying eyes, to dream of power and love in equal measure.
Now she came to plan.
She stood beneath the weeping willow, a book in her hand and thoughts miles away. Time was a puzzle. She had been thrown backward into her youth, but the reason still eluded her. The pendant was gone. The voice had vanished. And yet, she remained.
What did fate want from her?
A rustle of skirts snapped her from her thoughts. Lady Evelyne Duras approached, her expression as polished and sharp as the emerald pin in her hair. “Lady Lily,” she greeted smoothly. “You’re difficult to find these days.”
Lily smiled politely. “I’ve had much to reflect on lately.”
Evelyne raised a brow. “How uncharacteristically thoughtful of you.”
In her last life, Evelyne had been both a rival and an ally—depending on the week. She had a talent for manipulation, and her friendship came with hidden knives.
“I heard you declined Duchess Athmere’s dinner invitation,” Evelyne added, voice casual. “People are wondering if you’re ill.”
“No,” Lily said simply. “Just uninterested.”
Evelyne stepped closer. “Uninterested in her… or in what she might reveal?”
There it was. The bait.
In her previous life, the dinner had been a trap—one that exposed a minor scandal in Lily’s family and cost them a seat on the royal council. Evelyne had known about it. Had helped it happen.
Lily met her eyes. “What’s Duchess Athmere planning this time?”
Evelyne blinked, caught off guard. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t bother denying it,” Lily said, letting her voice cool. “You’ve never visited without a purpose, and I’m not so naïve anymore.”
For a heartbeat, Evelyne stared at her. Then, she laughed. “Oh, Lily. I was beginning to wonder where you’d gone.”
“I’m still here,” Lily replied, “just no longer blind.”
Evelyne stepped back, eyes glittering. “Then come to the dinner. Let’s see who’s really watching whom.”
She curtsied and left, skirts trailing like smoke.
Lily exhaled slowly.
So the first test had come.
In her past life, she had been humiliated at that dinner—unprepared, too proud to ask for help. This time, she would arrive armed with knowledge and strategy.
She would not be made a fool again.
As she turned back toward the estate, she spotted Lucien near the archway. He had seen Evelyne leave, and he looked at Lily with furrowed brows.
“Trouble?” he asked.
“Only a shadow,” she said with a faint smile. “And I’ve already lit the torch.”
---
Rain whispered against the glass of Lily’s bedroom as she stood by the window, watching clouds swallow the sun. The sky matched her thoughts—gray, heavy, full of secrets.
She was days into her second life now, and the pieces of her past and present were slowly grinding together like stones. The rhythms of her daily routine had returned, but every moment held a ripple beneath the surface, a danger that hadn’t yet revealed itself.
And worst of all—memories were fading.
The pendant that brought her back was nowhere to be found. The voice she’d heard in the temple had been silent ever since. What if the past was already rewriting itself? What if she forgot why she’d come back at all?
A knock broke her thoughts.
“Enter,” she said softly.
Her maid, Anya, stepped in. Younger, brighter-eyed than Lily remembered. “There’s a visitor for you, my lady.”
Lily’s brows knit. “A visitor?”
“In the east salon. Lord Elias of House Thorne.”
Her heart stopped.
Elias.
The name struck like a bell inside her ribs. She hadn’t heard it—hadn’t thought it—in years.
He was her first love. Her first betrayal.
She dressed quickly, fingers shaking only once while tying the ribbon at her collar. When she entered the salon, the air seemed to warp.
Elias stood by the fireplace, tall and composed, dressed in charcoal-gray with a silver pin at his collar. His dark hair curled slightly at the nape, just as it had back then, and his green eyes held the same sharp gleam of mischief and calculation.
“Lily,” he said with that infamous smirk. “You’re lovelier than I remember.”
“And you’re as arrogant as ever,” she replied smoothly, though her voice betrayed a flicker of unease.
He laughed. “Ah. There she is. The rose with teeth.”
She sat, folding her hands. “Why are you here, Elias?”
“Your father requested I accompany you to the upcoming Spring Council. He thought it wise for us to become reacquainted.” He tilted his head. “Though I admit, I volunteered.”
Lily hid her rising dread behind a neutral smile. In her past life, the Spring Council had been the first true shift in her story—the beginning of her climb into political power, and the first crack between her and Lucien. A crack Elias had helped widen.
“You and I,” Elias said softly, “always made a formidable pair.”
In another life, she would have blushed. In another life, she had.
Now, she simply looked him in the eye. “I’ve learned that not all power is worth the cost.”
He arched a brow. “Is that so?”
“Yes.” She stood. “And I don’t intend to repeat old mistakes.”
He rose too, expression unreadable. “I’m looking forward to seeing who you become this time, Lily.”
As he left, she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
One thread from her past had returned.
And another danger had stepped back into her life.
---
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