He knew I was his soulmate because I already had been. We’d already shared a life together. We’d had a child together. Oh my God. Auryn is my daughter. SABER is MY daughter. This explained everything. I’d wondered how he knew where to find me on Halloween but now I knew he had to have been keeping tabs on me. I would’ve watched him from a distance. That was why he panicked when he found me in Avolire because I had a history with Sweyn.

I had a history.

I had a past-life.

Those dreams . . . they weren’t dreams at all. They were memories. I peeled my gaze from his and glanced around. This had looked familiar when I arrived, it looked like that terrifying dream, but it wasn’t a dream at all. It was a memory. That was why it rattled my soul the way it did, because it was too strong a memory. That was the first time I’d seen Everest with long hair. I looked back to him and realized he was wearing that same outfit made of strange armor.

‘That’s over,’ he’d said to me in that dream.

I’d been apologizing to him. Forgive me. I’m sorry. I had to. I’m sorry. That was all I’d been able to say. I glanced down at the body of my past-self surrounded by flames and my heart sank. I had a sinking suspicion I knew how I died because there was only one reason for that guilt to carry over into my next life.

“You are not Celina. I demand you show me thy face this moment or I shall⁠—”

“Celina. That’s why you refuse to call me Frankie,” I heard myself whisper as I stared into his eyes. “Because Francelina is closer to Celina, it felt more like me.”

He flinched. “What?”

“Because I was always Celina to you.”

“Who are you⁠—”

“You know who I am⁠—”

“You’re an imposter⁠—”

“I am your soulmate⁠—”

“My soulmate is dead!” he screamed and his voice broke.

I gasped. My heart was screaming back at him. I wanted to reach out for him, but I was afraid to spook him, so I pressed my palm to my chest right above the soulmate glyph in the middle of my chest. “If your soulmate is dead then why is your glyph pulsing with color?”

He scowled but his gaze dropped to my chest, and I knew the moment he saw the black lines on my skin and the dark wine-red shade of the crystal because his face paled and his eyes widened. He yanked open his armor to look at his own skin. At first it was clear but that black magic of his swept over his chest and the glyph appeared. It was identical to mine. “No. No this is a trick⁠—”

“It’s not a trick⁠—”