Darkness.
Lily had seen darkness before—on the black screens of servers she infiltrated, in the encrypted cores of firewalls she melted down for sport. But this darkness wasn't digital. It wasn't virtual. It was thick, suffocating, and very, very real.
She gasped.
Air. Cold, stale air scraped through her throat like sandpaper. Her lungs ached as if they hadn't been used in centuries.
She tried to move. Her fingers twitched. Something cracked beneath her—a wooden lid?
Panic sparked in her chest. She shot her arms upward and pushed with all her might.
The lid groaned, then burst open.
A rush of cold hit her skin. Dust spiraled upward, and pale moonlight poured into the tight space. She sat up, wheezing, blinking as her vision adjusted. She was in a marble tomb, surrounded by stone statues, long-burned candles, and shattered glass.
A crypt.
She was in a damn crypt.
"What the hell…" Lily rasped, then paused.
Her voice wasn't hers.
It was softer. Higher. Regal.
She stumbled out of the coffin and caught a glimpse of herself in a shattered mirror shard lying among wilted flowers. The face that looked back wasn't Lily's. It was porcelain-pale, with high cheekbones, silver-blonde hair, and violet eyes that glowed faintly in the dark.
A face she recognized.
"Seraphina," Lily whispered.
The name had haunted digital ruins and history books. The last rightful heir to the Elarian Empire. Murdered mysteriously. Replaced by a double. Her legacy erased by someone she had once called friend.
Lily clutched her head as flashes of memory—not hers—rushed in. Coronation lights. Betrayal in a garden. Poisoned wine. A wicked smile.
Anera.
The girl Seraphina trusted to be her double. Her shadow. Her friend.
Lily—no, Eagle—bit her lip until she tasted blood.
She wasn't here by accident. Someone had thrown her into Seraphina's cold corpse with a reason.
Maybe fate.
Maybe vengeance.
Either way, she would finish what Seraphina couldn't.
Lily turned toward the sealed crypt doors, sparks of rage and code flickering in her mind.
"Time to reboot the empire