Introduction

I used to think my life was a gilded cage, trapped by the family who adopted me, the Blakelys.

They showered me with privilege, but it was just a facade.

Then, everything changed. I' m on my knees, a throbbing pain in my cheek, accused by my adoptive mother, Elizabeth, of assaulting my "sister," Nicole.

Nicole plays the perfect victim, her eyes brimming with fake tears as Elizabeth tells me, "You are not our daughter, Stella. Nicole is. You owe her everything."

They stripped me of my identity, making me feel like a replacement, a charity case who had stolen another's life.

In my last life, their words shattered me. I was a naive girl, easily manipulated, unknowingly prepped for sacrifice. I died at twenty-one, my "Golden Aura"-my very life force-drained to fuel their real daughter's ascent, sealing my real parents' gruesome fate.

But the joke's on them. I'm back. Reborn at eighteen, with every chilling memory of my past life and the decade I spent as a wandering spirit.

This time, I' ll play their twisted game, but with one crucial difference: I make the rules. And I will burn their world to the ground.