Mag-log inPercy wanted to push back, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything at all. All he could do was stare at her with a blank mind while the rational worldview he had spent decades constructing cracked wide open. The only thought he had was how everything Aria had just told him could be possible. Things like past lives, reincarnation, and memories locked inside a soul were against every scientific principle he knew, every rule the real world operated by. In the framework he'd built his entire life around, none of this was possible. He'd handled more cases than he could count. He'd also met every kind of person imaginable and listened to things that would make most people's heads spin—but never had anyone said something this far removed from reality. This was the stuff of fantasy novels, and it belonged in people's imaginations. How could any of it be real? How could it be happening to him? Nobody in their right mind would accept something like this. He was Percy Carver, the
Percy went back to flipping through the case files and scribbling notes. He was tightening up every last detail before tomorrow's trial. This case was too big, and his client had too much riding on it for anything less. But he didn't know that the fractured memories he kept shoving aside weren't hallucinations at all. They were real memories that were sealed away for a thousand years. And he had no idea that Aria was already on her way to him to crack open all of those buried memories. She wanted to bring him back into the fold as the fourth apprentice of Hollowlight Sect so that he could stand with his fellow apprentices to rescue Thayne and avenge their sect. His office door remained shut. Sunlight poured through the large windows and spilled across the desk, lighting up the thick case files and the focused lines of Percy's profile. Down the same building, a black car pulled up to the curb. Aria and Landon stepped out. They looked up toward the 28th floor and started walking
The hospital room was drowned in grief, anger, and guilt. Whatever warmth their reunion had carried was gone now, smashed apart by one horrible revelation after another. All that was left was a rage for everyone they'd lost and the raw, aching horror of what Thayne had been through. His voice came out rough and low, but every single word hit hard. "Sylas lost his humanity a long time ago, and there's no forgiving what he's done. I don't care what it costs. We'll get Mr. Granger back and make that bastard pay in blood!" "I owe Mr. Granger everything, so I'm definitely getting him out and settling this score. If we're not strong enough right now, then we train until we are. We'll track down Percy, Jeffrey, and Leon to pull together every bit of power we've got. We'll make Sylas pay even if it takes everything we have!" "Yeah! We'll save Mr. Granger, kill Sylas, and make him pay for what they did to our sect! We couldn't hold it together last time around, but in this life, I'd do wh
The warmth in Elijah's eyes was gone. All that was left was focus and alertness for whatever Aria was about to tell them. He knew better than anyone that the catastrophe that had wiped out Hollowlight Sect had to have something darker behind it. On the bed, Rafael had finally started to settle down. His eyes were still red around the edges, and there were tears that he hadn't wiped away. He could still feel the warmth of his brothers' hands from when they'd recognized each other. He'd been leaning back against the head of the bed. After hearing what Aria said, his body slowly straightened up. One of his hands fisted into the blanket hard enough that his knuckles went pale. There was still some fatigue of just having woken up on his face, but his eyes had gone sharp in an instant. His proud and fierce self from his past life had risen back up as he stared at Aria. His head was full of questions about what had happened to the sect and about who had really been behind the catastro
Off to the side, Landon let his jaw slowly relax as he watched the whole thing. There was nothing but care and relief in his eyes. He stepped forward without saying a word and slipped an arm around Aria's shoulders to give her something to lean on. He was offering his own silent blessing to Aria and Rafael after everything they'd been through across both their lives. On the bed, Rafael gripped Aria's hand back hard. His body was still weak, but there was nothing weak about the look in his eyes. He looked at Aria and made himself a quiet promise. In this life, he would be both her older brother and her fellow apprentice from Hollowlight Sect. It didn't matter whether it was the life before or the one they were living now, and it didn't matter what hell they had to walk through. He would keep her safe and stay with her through all of it. Together, they would set right every regret and hold on to everyone who mattered, and nothing would ever pull them apart again. Out in the hal
Rafael had never met any of these people or been part of any of these events. The warmth of those days and the brutal endings that came after were not his to live through. And yet all of it sat inside him as if it had been there since the day he was born. Every scene, every look on his fellow apprentices' faces, and the words they had shared all came back to him with painful clarity. He finally understood that this wasn't someone else's story. It was his own past life. They were memories sealed in the deepest part of his soul, the kind that no number of lifetimes would ever be enough to erase. The warmth had been the happiness he once held, and the pain had been a regret he could never make right. As for the young woman he had shielded behind his back, she was the fellow apprentice he had given his life to protect in that past life and ultimately failed to save. She had come back to him in this life as Aria, the sister he doted on with everything he had. So the stories in those
Miguel said, "How are we rushing things at all? The list came out ages ago, so you're already behind schedule. "We need to handle your paperwork, clear things with your family, and get you seen by the scholarship committee before you miss this opportunity." Miguel made it sound like the spot was
"I promise it won't happen again!" To an outsider, it might've sounded like Amos was talking about the cafeteria mishap. But the truth was much darker. What Amos really meant was that incidents like this could continue, just never publicly. Once the media's attention died down, they could go back
"I don't know what Judy meant by that," Eden said as she looked up. "She never talked like that before." "Got it," Aria said, zooming in on the photo. By looking at the brand of the chocolate drink and the surrounding buildings, she could nail down the exact location. Without hesitation, she sen
The young girls huddled up together. None of them had imagined they would end up in a situation like this. They were all promising students who believed they had finally gotten a chance to pursue further studies.But now, they realized it had all been an elaborate trap. The interview was fake. The s







