Chapter 2

They threw me into a dilapidated chapel deep in the forest. The door slammed shut, the heavy bolt sliding into place with a sound of finality. It was cold, the kind of damp chill that seeps into your bones. The only light came from a single high window, barred and grimy.

I was alone.

They left me a thin, scratchy blanket and a bucket of water. That was it. For three days, they had said. Three days of "purification."

The whole situation was nightmarish, but underneath the terror, something else stirred. A strange, haunting familiarity.

I' ve been here before.

The thought came unbidden, a ghost from a past I had spent centuries trying to bury. The cold stone floor. The isolation. The feeling of being an offering.

Fragments of memory flickered at the edge of my consciousness. A different forest, older, darker. A different altar, made of ancient, moss-covered stone. A presence, powerful and overwhelming, that was not fear but... something else.

I pushed the thoughts away. I had built a life for myself, a normal life. I was Nicole Chavez, a wealthy woman who enjoyed art, travel, and the company of a man I thought I knew. I was not that other person, the one who had lived a thousand lives and known beings that were not human.

But the memories wouldn't stay buried. They were triggered by the scent of the damp earth, the rough texture of the stone walls.

I remembered a voice, deep and resonant, full of a possessive love that both thrilled and terrified me.

You will see, my love. You will see how fleeting they are. And you will come back to me.

Caleb.

His name was a wound. The entity I had run from. The one who had "cursed" me with this endless life, this resilience that was now my only hope. He had done it out of spite, out of a broken heart, so I would watch everyone I ever cared for wither and die. He wanted me to learn that his immortal love was the only constant.

I had hated him for it. I had spent centuries proving him wrong, accumulating wealth, moving from city to city, building new lives, determined to find happiness in the mortal world he so disdained.

And it had all led me here. To a cheap imitation of my past, betrayed by a pathetic, greedy man.

The irony was so bitter it made me want to laugh, but all that came out was a dry, ragged sob.