The forest swallowed Liana whole the moment she stepped past the treeline.
Moonlight filtered through the branches in silver ribbons, illuminating patches of moss and shadow like a broken trail. The wind whispered through leaves overhead, carrying scents of pine, damp earth, and something else...
Something metallic.
Liana paused.
She knew this forest well—from her first life. It had been her refuge, her hiding place, her escape. But she had never walked into it this early in the timeline. And the forest, just like fate, seemed to be shifting around her.
She moved quietly, her cloak brushing the undergrowth. The tall grass behind her swayed slowly, covering her footsteps.
Then she heard it.
A low groan.
Not an animal.
A person.
Liana froze, every muscle tensing.
Another groan—this one sharper, ragged, as if torn from someone fighting to breathe.
Her eyes instantly sharpened.
She followed the sound deeper, stepping over fallen branches and weaving through ferns until she reached a small clearing where moonlight pooled like pale water.
And then she saw him.
A man.
Collapsed against the base of a thick oak tree, his hand pressed desperately against his side.
Dark clothes soaked in something that glistened deep red.
Blood.
Liana's breath caught—not from fear, but from instinct.
He was injured. Badly.
His skin was pale beneath the moonlight, jaw sharp, hair tousled across his forehead. He looked powerful even in collapse—shoulders broad, posture tense, muscles coiled like a wounded predator ready to fight even on death's edge.
He lifted his head when he sensed her presence.
Eyes dark as midnight locked onto hers.
For a second, neither of them moved.
The forest held its breath.
Then—
"Stay back," he rasped.
His voice was low, commanding, the kind that people obeyed without thinking.
But Liana wasn't most people.
She stepped forward anyway.
"You're bleeding," she said quietly.
"Not your concern," he ground out, trying—and failing—to push himself upright.
Blood seeped between his fingers, hot and thick, pooling onto the forest soil.
"You'll die if someone doesn't stop the bleeding," she replied calmly.
He gave a broken laugh, harsh and pained. "Death won't take me that easily."
He tried to stand again. His knees buckled.
Liana was beside him before he hit the ground.
He tensed, shocked she moved so fast.
Her hands—steady, experienced, reborn with a healer's knowledge—pressed against his wound.
He hissed in pain, gripping her wrist with surprising strength.
"What are you—"
"Saving your life," she said, tone unshaken.
His grip loosened.
For a moment, they stared at each other—his dark eyes filled with suspicion, hers with quiet determination.
She tore a strip of fabric from her cloak and pressed it firmly against his wound.
"There was an ambush," the man muttered, voice trembling despite his efforts to sound controlled. "My men... scattered. I lost them."
Ambush. Men. A wounded noble in the forest.
Liana's mind sharped instantly.
He wasn't just anyone.
He was someone important—someone dangerous.
Someone whose death would shake the empire.
"You're losing too much blood," she murmured.
He clenched his jaw. "I said—"
"I don't care what you said." Her voice turned steel. "Be quiet and breathe."
He blinked, stunned by her authority.
She slid an arm behind his back to brace him, ignoring the warmth of his blood smearing across her hands. When she leaned closer, she noticed the crest embroidered faintly on his cloak—dark thread on darker fabric.
A thorned branch wrapped around a star.
Her pulse surged.
She knew that symbol.
Rowan.
This was a Rowan.
Not just wealthy.
Not just powerful.
One of the empire's deadliest families.
And judging by his presence here—alone, bleeding, half-dead—
He wasn't a guard.
Not a servant.
Not a low-ranking noble.
He was someone who shouldn't be found like this.
His breath hitched as she tightened the makeshift bandage.
"You're... not afraid," he muttered, studying her with a strange intensity. "Most people tremble before they even speak to a Rowan."
"I'm not most people," she replied, meeting his gaze.
Something flickered in his expression—interest, confusion, disbelief.
A dark drop of blood rolled down his arm and splattered onto her wrist.
Liana glanced down—
And saw something that made her heart stop.
His blood was darker than it should be.
Thicker.
Tainted.
Poison.
She inhaled sharply. "You weren't just stabbed."
He exhaled shakily. "You're observant."
"You were poisoned," she whispered. "There's venom mixed into your blood. Whoever attacked you meant to kill you slowly."
His lips curved into a faint, grim smile. "They'll be disappointed."
She studied him—this stranger with power in his bones, blood on his clothes, and death at his heels.
The forest was silent around them.
So silent she could hear his heartbeat stuttering.
"Look at me," Liana said.
His eyes lifted to hers, dark and unreadable.
"You're not dying tonight," she told him.
"And why," he breathed, voice fading, "should you care?"
Liana's expression hardened with the cold fire of a woman reborn.
"Because tonight," she whispered, "I save the people I choose."
And fate had brought this man to her feet for a reason.
A reason soaked in blood and destiny.
His eyes fluttered once—then closed.
He collapsed against her.
The moonlit clearing echoed with the sound of his ragged breathing.
Liana tightened her grip on him.
She didn't know who he was yet.
But she knew one thing with absolute certainty:
Whoever wanted this man dead...
Just created an alliance they would regret.