Chapter 1

My eyes opened.

The ceiling was familiar, too familiar.

It was my old room in the Everlight Circle' s novitiate housing.

Sunlight, pale and weak, came through the window.

My head hurt.

Not a physical pain, but a deep ache, like a memory trying to break free.

Then it flooded in.

A whole life.

Years of work, of sacrifice.

Ethan. Maya. Mr. Henderson.

All of it, stolen.

Seraphina, my sister, her angelic face hiding a cruel smile.

Chancellor Alistair, his wise voice dripping with lies.

The public shaming. The exile. The cold despair.

I remembered dying, broken and alone, my heart a stone.

I sat up, my hands shaking.

This room. I hadn' t been in this room for ten years, not in that other life.

The air smelled the same, faintly of incense and old books.

My reflection in the small mirror was younger.

Hopeful.

The girl I used to be, before they broke me.

A cold fury, something I thought had died with me, stirred deep inside.

It wasn' t a dream.

This was real. I was back.

A knock on the door.

"Scarlett? Are you awake?"

Seraphina' s voice.

Sweet, concerned.

Lies.

I stood, my legs unsteady.

"Coming," I called out, my own voice sounding strange, younger.

I opened the door.

Seraphina stood there, dressed in the pure white robes of the Circle.

Her smile was perfect.

"The Chancellor has summoned us," she said. "It' s about the Trials of Devotion."

My breath caught.

The Trials.

The beginning of the end.

Or perhaps, this time, the beginning of something else.

Alistair' s voice echoed in my memory, "Only one can truly achieve the ultimate Grace."

The inherent rivalry. The prophecy.

All tools for him and Seraphina.

"I know," I said, my voice flat.

Seraphina' s smile faltered for a second.

She expected excitement, maybe a little fear.

Not this coldness.

"Are you alright, Scarlett?" she asked, her head tilted. "You look pale."

"I' m fine," I said.

Better than fine.

I was alive. I remembered.

And I was angry.

A deep, burning anger that tasted like ash and iron.

This time, things would be different.

I wouldn' t be their fool.

I wouldn' t be their sacrifice.

"Let' s go," I said, walking past her.

The path to the Chancellor' s office was the same.

The quiet halls, the scent of polished wood.

The other novices, their faces bright with hope.

They didn' t know.

They didn' t know the rot at the heart of the Everlight Circle.

Chancellor Alistair sat behind his large, ornate desk.

He looked exactly as I remembered him from this time.

Charismatic. Revered.

A predator in sage' s robes.

"Scarlett. Seraphina," he greeted us, his voice warm, fatherly. "Welcome."

He gestured for us to sit.

"As you know," he began, "the time has come for the Trials of Devotion."

His eyes met mine, searching.

"These trials are a sacred duty, a path to Ascension. They test your ability to connect, to sacrifice, to embody the Circle' s highest ideals."

He smiled. "The one who proves herself most worthy will become my Luminous Hand, a successor-in-waiting."

His words were a script I knew by heart.

In my past life, I had hung on every syllable, desperate for his approval.

Now, I felt nothing but contempt.

"The path will be arduous," Alistair continued, his gaze lingering on me. "It will demand everything."

He looked at Seraphina. "And it will test the bond between you sisters. For the prophecy states your fates are intertwined, yet only one can achieve the ultimate Grace."

Seraphina lowered her eyes, feigning humility.

"We understand, Chancellor," she murmured.

I said nothing.

The rage was a living thing inside me now, coiling, waiting.

This was my second chance.

Not for Grace.

Not for Ascension.

For revenge.