Celeste's POV
Glass rains down on us like deadly snow.
Get down! Damian tackles me to the floor as a blast of magic shoots through the broken window, missing my head by inches.
Luna screams. More windows explode. Dark figures pour into the penthouse Council enforcers in black suits, their hands glowing with attack spells.
Damian rolls us behind the couch. Silas! Get them out of here!
A tall, muscular man appears from nowhere Silas, Damian's head of security. He's already fighting, moving faster than any human should, throwing enforcers across the room with brutal efficiency.
This way! Silas grabs Luna and me, pulling us toward a hidden door in the wall.
What about Damian? I scream.
I can handle them! Damian's hands glow blue technology magic, the kind humans who work with supernatural beings can learn. He blasts two enforcers backward. Go! Now!
An enforcer lunges at me. Pure instinct takes over. My magic explodes outward in a purple wave, and suddenly the enforcer is on his knees, screaming. He's trapped in his worst memory I can feel it. I did that without even trying.
Celeste, come on! Luna yanks my arm.
We run through the hidden door into a stairwell. Silas locks it behind us with some kind of magical seal.
Keep moving, he orders. They'll breakthrough in sixty seconds.
We race down the stairs. Behind us, something explodes. The building shakes.
Where are we going? I gasp.
Safe house. Damian has several. Silas kicks open a door at the bottom. This way.
We burst into an underground parking garage. A black SUV waits with the engine running. Silas shoves us inside and floors it.
I twist around, looking back at the building. Lights flash in the penthouse windows. More explosions. My heart is trying to punch through my ribs.
Damian
He'll be fine, Silas says, but his jaw is tight. He's been preparing for this for three years. The penthouse has defense they don't know about.
Ten minutes later, we screech to a stop outside a normal-looking apartment building. Silas hustles us inside and up to the third floor. The safe house is small but comfortable one bedroom, a kitchen, reinforced windows.
Luna collapses on the couch, shaking. What the hell just happened?
The Council found out Celeste knows the truth, Silas says grimly. They sent enforcers to eliminate the problem.
Eliminate? My voice comes out small. You mean kill us.
Yes.
The word hits like a slap. They want me dead. The people who raised me, who I trusted, just tried to murder me.
My phone buzzes. Damian's name flashes on the screen.
I answer so fast I almost drop it. Are you okay?
I'm fine. Are you safe? His voice is rough, breathless.
Silas got us out. We're at a safe house.
Good. Stay there. I'm coming to you.
What about the enforcers?
Taken care of. There's a pause. Celeste, they're not going to stop. The Council knows you have your memories back. They'll keep coming until
Until I'm dead, I finish.
Another pause. I won't let that happen. I promise you, I won't let them touch you.
He hangs up. I sit there staring at the phone, my whole body shaking.
Luna wraps her arms around me. We're going to be okay. We're going to figure this out.
How? The most powerful magical government in the world wants me dead. How do we fight that?
We find the evidence you and Damian stole, Silas says. He's at the window, watching the street. We expose what they did. Make it public. Then they can't touch you without looking guilty.
Do you know where it is?
Damian does. He's protected it for three years, waiting for the right moment to use it.
Hope flickers in my chest. So we have a weapon.
We have a nuke, Silas corrects. But using it means war with the Council. Full-scale magical war.
The door bursts open. I jump, magic flaring to my hands, but it's just Damian. He's bleeding from a cut on his forehead, his shirt torn, but he's alive.
I run to him before I can think. You're hurt.
I'm fine. He catches me, his arms coming around me automatically. For a second, we just stand there.
My body remembers this. Even if my mind doesn't, my body knows what it feels like to be held by him. Safe. Protected. Home.
I pull back, flustered. We need to talk. About the evidence. About what we do next.
We will. Damian's eyes are intense. But first, there's something you need to see.
He pulls out a laptop and sets it on the table. A video file is queued up.
What is this?
Security footage from three years ago. The night they took you. His voice is tight. I've watched it a thousand times. I thought maybe... maybe you should see it too. So you know what they did to you.
My hands shake as I click play.
The video shows a Council chamber. Enforcers drag me inside past-me, screaming and fighting. Damian is being held back by four men, yelling my name.
Aurora stands at the center, calm and cold.
Celeste Thorne, she says in the video. You've been found guilty of treason against the Arcane Council. Your sentence is total memory erasure.
Past-me spits at her. You're torturing children! We were trying to stop you!
You were interfering with Council business. Aurora signals to someone off-screen. Hold her down.
They force past-me into a chair. She fights so hard it takes six enforcers to bind her wrists that's where the scars came from.
Aurora begins chanting. Purple light pours from her hands into past-me's head.
Past-me screams. It's the worst sound I've ever heard pure agony and terror and heartbreak.
Damian! She screams. Damian, don't let them do this! Please!
Video-Damian is sobbing, still fighting to get free. I love you! Celeste, I love you! I'll find you! I'll bring you back!
You won't, Aurora says coldly. She'll never remember you existed.
The spell completes. Past-me goes limp, eyes empty.
The video ends.
I'm crying so hard I can't breathe. Luna is crying too. Even Silas looks wrecked.
That's what they did to you, Damian says quietly. That's what Aurora did. While I watched. While I couldn't stop it.
I stand up on shaky legs. I need to see her. I need to confront Aurora.
That's exactly what they want, Silas warns. It's a trap.
I don't care. Rage burns through my grief. She's been pretending to be my family for three years. Lying to my face every single day. I deserve to hear her admit it.
Damian catches my arm. Then I'm coming with you.
No. This is between me and her.
Celeste
Please. I meet his eyes. I need to do this alone. I need to face the woman who stole my life and tell her she doesn't own me anymore.
His jaw clenches, but he nods. He pulls out a phones leek, expensive. Take this. Direct line to me. Anything goes wrong, you hit the button and I'm there in five minutes.
I take the phone. Our fingers brush, and electricity shoots through me.
There's a moment charged, intense where we're just staring at each other. He's so close. His eyes drop to my lips.
I should step back. I should remember that I don't know this man, not really.
But I don't move.
Damian lifts his hand slowly, giving me time to pull away. When I don't, he cups my face gently. Be careful, he whispers. I just got you back. I can't lose you again.
Then he lets me go.
An hur later, I stand outside my apartment building. My hands won't stop shaking.
Luna wanted to come, but I made her stay at the safe house. This is my fight.
I walk up the stairs and unlock my door. The apartment is dark.
Then the lights flick on.
Aurora sits on my couch, perfectly calm, drinking tea like this is a social visit. She's elegant and cold in her expensive suit, her gray hair pulled back.
Hello, darling, she says with a sweet smile that doesn't reach her eyes. We need to talk about Damian Cross. I hear you've been spending time with him.
I close the door behind me. You mean my husband? The man you made me forget?
Her smile doesn't falter. I was hoping we could avoid this conversation.
Why? Because you'd have to admit you've been lying to me for three years?
I've been protecting you.
You tortured me! My magic flares. I saw the video. I saw what you did.
Aurora sets down her tea. You were going to be executed, Celeste. I convinced the Council to let me erase your memories instead. I saved your life.
You stole my life!
I gave you a peaceful existence. No danger. No politics. Just your little shop and your simple life. She stands, and power rolls off her in waves. And you would have been happy if Damian had just stayed away like he was supposed to.
He loves me.
He's obsessed with you. There's a difference. Aurora steps closer. The Council has authorized me to offer you a choice, darling. Come back willingly. Let me reinforce the memory spell. Go back to your peaceful life and forget all of this ugliness. Or...
Or what?
Her eyes turn cold. Or I kill Damian Cross. Right now. Tonight. And then I erase your memories of him all over again.
The floor drops out from under me.
You're lying.
Aurora pulls out her phone and shows me a live video feed. Damian, unconscious, bound to a chair in a dark room. Council enforcers surround him.
No! I lunge for the phone but Aurora pulls it back.
The choice is yours, she says calmly. Your memories and your freedom. Or his life. You have ten seconds to decide.