The next morning arrived grey and sullen. Rain lashed against the high windows of Ashbourne Manor, drumming a warning into the thick stone walls. Olivia stirred beneath her sheets, half-dreaming, half-alert. Her sleep had been patchy—fractured by flickers of fire, chains, and that cruel smile Seraphina wore like a crown.
The note she'd crumpled the night before still lay on her nightstand. Olivia glanced at it again. The words hadn't faded.
We can finish what we started.
She didn't remember starting anything.
Downstairs, the manor was unusually quiet. Aiden was nowhere to be found. Neither were the servants—if you could call them that. Most were magical constructs or temporary beings conjured from wards embedded into the manor's bones.
She stepped into the library, expecting calm, but the door was already ajar.
A man sat by the fire.
She didn't recognise him.
He was tall, dressed in a dark cloak soaked from the rain. His features were sharp, angular—uncomfortably familiar. A burn scar crawled across one cheek, and his eyes—emerald green—held a mocking kind of amusement.
"You've grown," he said before she could speak.
Her pulse jumped. "Do I know you?"
"Not yet." He rose, slowly, deliberately. "But you knew me once. As Seraphina."
Olivia took a step back. "You're not supposed to be here. Ashbourne is sealed."
"Not to me," he said, voice smooth as polished steel. "I helped build its foundations. I taught her to draw fire from blood. I forged the Veil Gate."
"Who are you?"
He smiled. "Call me Kael."
She summoned heat to her palm. "One more step and I'll—"
"Burn me?" Kael arched a brow. "Like you burned the eastern wall? Like you tried to burn your own mind last night?"
His gaze flickered to the shard in her pocket. "You opened the well. That was brave. Foolish, but brave."
"What do you want?"
"I want to help you, Olivia."
"Help me become Seraphina?"
"No," he said simply. "Help you survive her."
She hesitated.
Kael stepped toward the fire. "The girl you were... Seraphina... she wasn't always cruel. She was made cruel. By betrayal. By men like Roran. By a world that feared her power."
"None of that was me."
"Wasn't it?" Kael asked softly. "The flame remembers."
She felt it then—an echo, a hum deep inside her chest. It wasn't rage. It was grief.
"She's bleeding into you faster now," he added. "Because the Veil is weakening. Because the bloodline is thinning. You are her last chance."
"I won't let her in."
"You may not have a choice."
Silence stretched.
"What happens if she does take over?" Olivia asked finally.
Kael's smile faded. "Ashes. Cities. Collapse."
"And if I stop her?"
His eyes gleamed. "Then you become more powerful than she ever was. But power... comes with cost."
Aiden burst through the door then, soaked and furious. "Step away from her!"
Kael didn't move. "Still quick to defend what you don't understand, I see."
"I should kill you where you stand."
"You could try," Kael said evenly. "But then your little Flamebearer here would never survive what's coming."
Olivia stepped between them. "Enough."
Kael gave her a long look. "I'll be watching. When you're ready to learn more, find me at the Broken Spire."
And just like that—he vanished.
The silence he left behind was thick and accusing.
"You should've told me," Olivia said quietly. "That she wasn't the only one coming back."
Aiden sat heavily in the nearest chair, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Kael was once her ally. Her lover, some say. He turned on her when she crossed a line. But I never expected him to find you so quickly."
"Why does he want to help?"
"Because he doesn't want Seraphina to win," Aiden replied. "But that doesn't make him trustworthy."
"Neither does keeping secrets," Olivia snapped.
He looked up, guilt flashing across his face. "You're right. I should've told you. But I wanted to protect you."
"I don't need protection. I need truth."
That night, she couldn't sleep again. Rain battered the glass, wind howled through the chimneys, and the fire flickered with a nervous energy. She sat by the window, watching the path beyond the manor gates.
She wondered if Kael was really gone.
Wondered if she'd be strong enough when he returned.
And then, for just a moment, her reflection in the glass shifted.
It wasn't her face staring back.
It was Seraphina's.
And she was smiling.