Night cloaked the academy in silence, save for the distant hoot of an owl and the soft rustle of leaves.
Evelyne moved through the eastern wing with purpose, her footsteps muffled by velvet carpet. Most students were asleep. Elisse was curled up in bed, none the wiser.
She had memorized the academy's layout from her previous life—and she remembered the hidden archive beneath the library.
That's where she was headed.
---
The sigil burned in her mind. A phoenix. The mark of her executioner. In her past life, it was etched onto the royal decree that sealed her fate.
And yet now… it had appeared on a letter.
Someone remembered.
But who?
---
She lit a blue-glass lantern and slipped through a narrow stone passage behind a forgotten bookshelf. The scent of old parchment and dust filled the air. Scrolls, ledgers, banned records—all kept in the hidden archive, where only professors and royals were allowed.
Her fingers trailed over spines and seals until she found what she was looking for:
"Crests of the Noble Houses: Lost and Forgotten"
She opened it to the page she needed—and froze.
There it was.
The phoenix sigil.
> "The symbol of House Caelthorn. Disbanded after the Ash Rebellion. Records purged under Empress Maren II."
House Caelthorn… a house erased from history. A house that once opposed the crown.
Her executioner had ties to them. But why was the sigil back now? And why her?
---
A faint creak behind her.
Evelyne spun around, hiding the book behind her back.
Zane Elcross stood at the entry, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
"You really should lock secret doors," he said.
---
To be continued…