Chapter 423

LUMINA

"Why?" Rivers asked suspiciously. "What did this Janice want in return?"

"A promise," I said. "When I died, when she offered to send me back, I promised that if I got another chance, I would leave Xenois. Would take Ollie and remove us from his life so we wouldn't have to suffer through his neglect again."

"But you didn't leave," Silvia observed.

"No," I agreed. "Because when I came back—when I woke up in my past self one year before everything fell apart—I started investigating. Started paying attention to things I'd dismissed before. And I realized, well it took leaving here with Ollie to seek refuge in...