Aria's POV
I grabbed Damien's arm before he could walk away.
"What did you just say?"
Everyone was yelling. Maya was crying. Ethan was shouting at the judges. Security was trying to remove them both.
But I didn't care about any of that.
"Welcome back," I repeated. "You said 'welcome back.' What does that mean?"
Damien looked at my hand on his arm. Then at my face. His grey eyes showed nothing.
"It means welcome to Apex Entertainment," he said smoothly. "What else would it mean?"
Liar. I heard what I heard. Saw what I saw. That knowing smile. Those two words.
"You know something," I said quietly. "About me. About this."
"This?" He raised an eyebrow. "You'll have to be more specific."
I couldn't say it. Couldn't tell him I died and came back. Not here. Not with all these people around.
But I needed to know if he knew. If he remembered. If I wasn't alone in this impossible thing.
"We need to talk," I said. "Privately."
"Miss Chen!" One of the judges called out. "We need you to sign your contract!"
"Later," Damien said, not taking his eyes off me. "Clear the room. Everyone out. Now."
"But sir—"
"OUT!"
The judges scrambled to leave. Security finally dragged Maya and Ethan into the hallway. Their shouts faded.
Then it was just us. Me and Damien Cross. Standing too close in an empty audition room.
"Talk," he said.
"You first. How did you know?"
"Know what?"
"Stop playing games!" My voice shook. "You said 'welcome back' like you knew. Like you remembered. So tell me the truth. Did you... did you also...?"
I couldn't finish. It sounded crazy.
Damien walked to the door. Locked it. Came back.
"Did I also die and wake up in the past?" he finished for me. "Is that what you're asking?"
My heart stopped. "You... you did?"
"No." He sat on the edge of the stage. "I didn't die. But I've been living the same three years over and over again. Six times now. This is my seventh loop."
I couldn't breathe. "That's impossible."
"Says the woman who traveled back thirteen years." He smiled, but it wasn't happy. "We're both living impossible things, Aria. The question is why."
"How long have you known about me?"
"Since you called my personal number this morning. The number I gave you three years from now. The number you shouldn't know yet." He leaned forward. "I've lived through this day six times. Every single time, you failed the audition. Got blacklisted. Disappeared. I never saw you again until three years later when you were dying in a hospital."
My first life. He was talking about my first life.
"Why didn't you help me before?" I asked. "If you remembered, why did you let Victor destroy me?"
"Because I didn't know that's what happened! Every loop, I'm stuck in these same three years. I watch the same events unfold. Make different choices. Try to change things. But it always resets." His voice was frustrated. "I never knew what happened to you after you failed the audition. I never made the connection between the failed singer and the dying woman I met in that hospital."
"Until today."
"Until you called me with a number from the future and told me about Victor's bribes. Information you shouldn't have." He stood up. "You broke my loop, Aria. You changed something that never changed before. And now I need to know how."
"I don't know how! I just... I died. And I woke up young again."
"When did you die?"
"Last night. I was thirty-five. Singing in a bar. The stage collapsed."
Damien went very still. "What date?"
"April 14, 2026. Why?"
He closed his eyes. "That's the date I die. Every single loop. April 14, 2026. I get in a car crash. And then I wake up on January 1, 2024. Always the same three years."
My blood ran cold. "We died on the same day."
"Same day. Different years of life. But the same date." He opened his eyes. "That can't be a coincidence."
"What does it mean?"
"I don't know. But I think our deaths are connected somehow. I think we're both caught in something bigger than time travel or loops."
A bang on the door made us both jump.
"Mr. Cross!" A man's voice. "There's an emergency! You need to come out now!"
Damien unlocked the door. A man in a suit burst in. He looked panicked.
"Sir, it's Victor Zhang. He's in the lobby. He has a gun. He's demanding to see Aria Chen. He says if she doesn't come down, he'll start shooting."
My whole body went cold.
This didn't happen in my first life. Victor got fired but he never came back with a gun.
What had I changed? What had I broken?
Damien grabbed my arm. "Stay behind me."
"No! This is my fault. He's here because of me."
"He's here because he's a monster who got caught." Damien's grip tightened. "You're not going down there."
"There are innocent people in that lobby! If he starts shooting—"
"Then we call the police and let them handle it."
"There's no time!" The man in the suit was shaking. "He's already fired two shots into the ceiling. He says he'll count to ten and then start killing people. He's at seven!"
I pulled away from Damien and ran for the door.
"Aria, stop!"
I didn't stop. I ran down the hallway, down the stairs, toward the lobby.
If Victor wanted me, he could have me. But nobody else was dying because I changed the past.
I burst into the lobby.
Victor stood in the center. Wild-eyed. Gun in his hand. Twenty people pressed against the walls, terrified.
He saw me and smiled. "There she is. The little girl who ruined my life."
"Let them go," I said. "This is between us."
"You're right. It is." He pointed the gun at me. "You took everything from me. My job. My reputation. My future. So I'm going to take everything from you."
His finger moved to the trigger.
Two things happened at once.
Damien appeared behind me, grabbing my waist to pull me back.
And Maya stepped out from behind a pillar, her phone up, recording everything.
"This is perfect," she whispered, smiling. "This is going to go so viral."
She wanted this. She wanted me to get shot on camera. Wanted me to die so her career could survive.
Victor's gun went off.
The sound was deafening.
I felt Damien spin me around, felt his body cover mine.
Felt him jerk as the bullet hit him instead of me.
He fell.
I caught him, and his blood poured onto my hands.
"No," I whispered. "No, no, no, NO!"
Damien looked up at me. Blood on his lips. "Now we're even," he said softly. "You saved me from thirteen more years of that loop. I saved you from a bullet."
"You're not dying! You can't die! We just found each other!"
His eyes started to close. "April 14, 2026," he whispered. "Find me. Change that day. Break both our curses."
"Damien!"
His eyes closed.
And I screamed.