The wind along the riverbank carried a cold bite that didn’t belong to the early morning.
It threaded through Alessia’s hair, lifting the torn veil piece in her trembling hand as if the river itself was trying to reclaim it.
Luca stood close behind her—so close she could feel the tension rolling off him in waves.
His fingers twitched once, as though resisting the urge to snatch the torn veil and burn it out of existence.
Daisy and Roo exchanged a look that was not shock—no. It was recognition. A quiet, heavy knowing.
And that terrified Alessia more than the dream ever did.
She swallowed, staring at the golden fabric. "This shouldn’t be here. It was on last night, I didn’t leave the inn."
Luca’s jaw tightened. "Soone could’ve dropped it....."
"No," Daisy cut in gently but firmly. "It’s not dropped,Look."
She stepped closer to the tree roots.
The fabric wasn’t simply lying on the ground—it was caught, almost threaded between the roots.
As though sothing had dragged through this exact spot.
A shiver crawled across Alessia’s spine.
Her dream hadn’t been blurry. It hadn’t been symbolic.
It had been... mapped. Rembered.
Luca crouched beside the shoeprint, his hand hovering above it but never touching. "This looks fresh," he muttered. "Too fresh."
Roo knelt beside him. "Could be Lorenzo," he said quietly. "Or... soone wearing his style."
Luca shot him a sharp look. "You think soone is trying to stage this?"
Roo didn’t answer.
Because no one wanted to say the truth out loud:
Soone had been here last night.
Soone who wore Lorenzo’s shoes.
Soone who wanted Alessia to see this.
"Luca..." Alessia whispered. "In the dream, Lorenzo was behind . I didn’t see him clearly, but I felt him, his hand, his breath, his voice."
She pressed a hand to her chest, breath shaky.
"It wasn’t just a dream. Soone touched ."
Luca stood so fast the air snapped around him. "We’re leaving," he said, grabbing her hand with a grip that was not gentle but desperate. "Right now. Before anything else happens."
But before she could move, Daisy knelt and lifted a small object from beneath the roots.
Alessia froze.
It was a pendant—a tiny silver coin engraved with a serpent coiled around a broken crescent.
Roo swore under his breath.
Luca went pale.
"What?" Alessia asked, voice tight. "What does it an?"
Luca hesitated.A long, too-long mont—before answering.
"It’s a sigil," he said quietly. "From Seriona’s past. From an old faction that shouldn’t exist anymore."
Daisy added softly, "They were called The Breakers. People who believed the river held mories—and could be forced to return them."
Roo looked at Alessia with sothing she didn’t understand. "If this was left here... soone may be trying to recreate an echo."
"A what?" Alessia whispered.
Luca looked away not refusing to answer, but struggling to find words that wouldn’t terrify her.
Roo didn’t soften it.
"An echo is when sothing that already happened gets pulled into the present.
It feels like a dream, but it’s not. It’s soone dragging the past into now."
Alessia felt the world tilt.
"So you’re saying that I..."
Her voice shook. "That I didn’t dream last night? That it happened? In another ti?"
Daisy stepped close, squeezing her arm. "We won’t jump to anything, That’s why you need to see the Seriona seers.They’ll know."
Luca exhaled a harsh, broken breath. "We shouldn’t have co here," he muttered. "I should have taken you anywhere but our ho in seriona."
Alessia touched his arm gently. "Luca... whatever this is, we’ll face it."
He nodded, but there was fear in his eyes she had never seen before.
Not fear for himself.
Fear of losing her.
And sothing told her he’d lost her once before—long before she ever dreamt of the river.
********
The four of them headed back toward the city, boots crunching through gravel and brittle leaves.
The festival fireworks had faded into silence, the air still thick with smoke and perfu and the faint ringing of distant bells.
But Luca walked like a man preparing for war.
Alessia slipped her hand into his. He squeezed, but his eyes kept darting to every shadow, every corner.
"Talk to ," she whispered. "What are you thinking?"
He didn’t answer imdiately. Instead, he pulled her closer, slipping an arm around her waist.
"I’m thinking," he said quietly, "that if soone touched you last night—if soone tried to pull you into that river for real—then they dared to put their hands on my wife."
His voice darkened, low and lethal.
"And I’ll tear Seriona City apart to find who did it."
Alessia didn’t flinch—because this was Luca.
Her Luca.
Terrifying only to his enemies.
But Daisy’s voice broke the heavy silence.
"Alessia... when you were dreaming, did you hear anything? A word, a whisper, anything specific?"
Alessia searched her mory, heartbeat kicking uncomfortably.
"There was a mont..."
She swallowed.
"A voice said sothing. Very faint. Like it was underwater."
Roo leaned in slightly. "What did it say?"
Her throat tightened.
"It said..."
She hesitated, terrified the words would make everything real.
"It said: Return what was taken."
Luca stopped walking completely.
Daisy froze.
Roo cursed softly.
Alessia’s stomach sank.
"What? What does that an?"
Luca turned to her slowly. His expression unreadable.
"I don’t know," he lied—she could see the lie in his eyes—
"but we’re not waiting for morning."
"We’re going to the seers now."
********
The temple was nothing like Alessia expected.
No incense.
No colored lanterns.
No charms hanging from the doors.
Just a towering stone building carved into a cliffside, its entrance lit by a single flickering torch. The symbol above the arch—a serpent wrapped around a broken crescent matched the pendant Daisy had found.
Alessia stopped cold.
"That’s the sa symbol..."
Roo nodded grimly. "The seers once consulted the Breakers. Before the faction twisted their purpose."
"And now?" Alessia asked.
"They cut ties," Daisy said, "but the symbol remains on the oldest temples, Forgotten by most."
Luca didn’t wait. He pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside with Alessia in his arms like he expected the walls to collapse around them.
The interior was dim, lit only by candles scattered across stone altars. Incense smoke twisted like ghosts, and the air carried a hum—a vibration that prickled against Alessia’s skin.
A woman stepped forward from the shadows, her hair silver as river frost, her eyes impossibly dark.
"I knew you would co," she said.
Alessia’s breath hitched. "You... knew?"
The woman nodded.
"You carry the mark of two tilines, Alessia Luca morano , One of the past... and one of the present colliding."
Luca stiffened. "What does that an?"
The seer’s gaze slid to him and softened with recognition.
"You’ve been here before, Luca Morano. Many years ago."
Alessia jerked her head toward him. "Luca? You’ve.....?"
He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second-Regret, restraint.
Secrets he never intended to share.
"I ca once," he said, voice tight. "A long ti before we t."
Alessia’s heart pounded.
"For what?" she asked him.
Luca opened his mouth—But the seer answered for him.
"For the sa reason you are here now," she said.
"To understand why a woman nad Alessia drowned in the river of Serena... nineteen years ago."
The room went silent.
The candles flickered.
Alessia couldn’t breathe.
Daisy’s hand flew to her mouth.
Roo swore under his breath.
Luca’s face went white—like the past had just reached up and dragged him under.
And Alessia—She whispered, barely audible:
"I... drowned?"
The seer stepped closer.
"You didn’t dream the river, Alessia.
You rembered it."
The floor seed to tilt beneath her feet.
She grabbed Luca’s arm, needing his warmth, his presence—anything to anchor her.
But the seer wasn’t finished.
"And now," she whispered, voice echoing through the chamber,
"the river is rembering you back."
Then—The temple doors slamd shut behind them
with a force that made the candles blow out.
Every single fla.
Darkness swallowed the room whole.
And sothing moved
in the shadows
toward Alessia.....
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