Sophia POV
The crown sits wrong on my head.
I'm standing on the stage in front of the entire pack, wearing this heavy thing that's supposed to make me powerful, and all I can think is that it doesn't fit. The metal digs into my temples. My hands shake as I raise them to accept the blessing from the Council.
This should be the best moment of my life.
It's the worst.
The poison hits my bloodstream maybe thirty seconds after Elena hands me the cup. She's my best friend since we were kids, and her hands are shaking so hard the liquid spills on her dress. She looks at me with these wide, terrified eyes like she's about to tell me something important. Then she just turns and walks away.
That's when I know something is really wrong.
The burning starts in my chest first. It spreads like fire through my veins, eating me alive from the inside. I try to scream but nothing comes out. My mouth fills with blood. The metallic taste coats my tongue and makes me gag. I look across the room and catch James's eye. My mate. The man I've loved for five years.
He's laughing.
Not at me. With his father. The Alpha. They're standing in the corner of the hall like this is funny. Like watching me die is the funniest thing they've seen all week.
My legs give out.
I collapse onto the stage stairs in this white coronation dress that's turning red. So much red. I can't breathe. The crowd is screaming or maybe that's just the ringing in my ears. Someone is crying. I think it's Elena. I try to focus on her but my vision is breaking into pieces.
James looks at me one more time and shrugs. Just shrugs like I'm nothing.
That's the last thing I see before everything goes black.
I wake up screaming.
My body convulses on the bed, gasping for air that won't come. My hands claw at my throat like there's poison still burning there, still eating me alive. The pain is so real that for one terrible moment I think the poisoning actually worked. I think I'm still dying.
Then my fingers find bare skin. No poison mark. No blood. Just my own neck, smooth and whole and alive.
I roll out of bed and crash onto the wooden floor. The impact shocks my system back into reality. I'm breathing. I'm not dead. But my heart is still racing like it's trying to escape my chest.
My childhood room is exactly how I left it five years ago. Same small bed. Same faded curtains. Same desk in the corner with sketches I made when I was seventeen. Everything is wrong. Everything is impossible.
I crawl to the mirror and stare at my reflection. I'm younger. Not just slightly younger. Years younger. My face is softer without the strain of pretending everything is fine. My eyes don't have the haunted look that comes from loving someone who hates you. My body is smaller, less shaped by the weight of being a Luna.
I'm seventeen again.
No. That's not possible.
But it is. Somehow, impossibly, I'm back. I'm seventeen. The poison is gone. The crown is gone. James's laugh is gone.
Everything from the last five years is right there in my head though. Crystal clear. Sharper than real memories should be. I remember the taste of blood. I remember the moment James stopped pretending to love me. I remember the exact expression on his father's face when he signed the execution order.
I remember Elena crying.
I remember everything.
My hands start shaking again, but this time it's different. This time it's not fear. It's something else entirely. Something dark and sharp and focused.
I stand up on shaky legs and walk to my mirror. I stare at my seventeen-year-old face and make myself a promise. One promise.
"I'm going to burn them all," I whisper to my reflection.
The girl staring back at me has murder in her eyes.
She looks like a stranger.
For three days, I stay in my room.
I tell my parents I'm sick. I tell them I need rest. They don't push. My mother brings soup that I don't eat. My father knocks once and asks if I need anything. I tell him no.
What I actually need is to make sense of the impossible thing that's happened to me.
I spend those three days writing everything down. Every single detail from the last five years. The names of everyone involved. The dates of the meetings where they planned my death. The formula of the poison. The reason Victoria wanted me dead. The way Elena's hands shook when she delivered the cup.
I fill up an entire journal.
By the third day, I have a list of exactly seven people who are going to betray me. Seven people I've trusted or loved or respected. Seven people who will stand in that ceremony and watch me die without flinching.
The Alpha. Victoria. James. Elena. The pack healer. Council Member Five. And one more person I can't quite remember clearly. Someone from the shadows. Someone who shouldn't have been there but was.
I remember his presence even if I can't remember his face.
That's the part that keeps me up at night. There's a blank space in my memories where someone's face should be. Someone important. Someone dangerous. And I can't remember if he helped kill me or if he was trying to save me when everything went wrong.
On the morning of the fourth day, I hear a knock on my bedroom door.
"Go away," I call out.
The door opens anyway. Elena steps into my room with worry written all over her face. She looks so innocent. So unaware of what she's going to do.
"You've been in here forever," she says, walking over to sit on my bed. "Your mom is worried you're getting depressed."
I watch her settle onto the mattress like we're friends. Like I haven't already seen the moment she becomes a murderer. Like I haven't already felt what it's like to die while she holds the poisoned cup.
"I'm fine," I tell her.
She smiles at me like she believes it.
I smile back and try not to think about her tears.
"Sophia," she says suddenly, like she's been building up to this question, "if something bad happened to me, something that wasn't really my fault but I was still part of it, would you forgive me?"
My blood goes cold.
She knows something. She doesn't know what, but she knows something is coming.
"Of course I would," I lie smoothly.
She nods like that's the answer she needed, and I realize something crucial. Elena doesn't want to betray me. She's going to, but she doesn't want to. That means she's being forced. That means she's a victim too.
When Elena leaves, I sit on the edge of my bed and feel something shift inside me.
This isn't just about revenge anymore.
This is about survival.
And I'm not just going to burn them. I'm going to make sure I know exactly who deserves to burn and who's just caught in the flames.
That night, I make a new plan. I go through my journal and mark the names in different colors. Guilty. Forced. Unknown.
The list is smaller than I thought.
But it's also more dangerous.
Because if Victoria's forcing Elena, that means there's a whole conspiracy I didn't fully understand before. That means the poisoning isn't just about James wanting me dead. It's about something bigger. Something that involves dark magic and blood rituals and power that goes way beyond pack politics.
That means I need to be smarter than I thought.
That means I need an ally I can't predict or control.
And as I'm sitting there in my small bedroom with my journal full of secrets, I don't know yet that the answer is already walking through the Ashford Estate. I don't know that he's going to become the most dangerous piece of this game.
I don't know that he's the man whose face I can't remember.
But I'm about to find out.
Because tomorrow, I'm going to put on a red dress and walk into that pack gathering like I own the place. And I'm going to make sure that every single person who's going to betray me sees me first.
I'm going to make them watch me before they destroy me.