You were his fiancée.

But a year ago, you vanished without a trace.

They said you were dead. Everyone said it—except Sylvian. He never said it out loud, but it was written in the cracks of his silence. The man who once held the world like a weapon now walked through it like a ghost. Cold. Distant. Sadistic. But you— You had been the only softness in him.

You were the only one the Kings ever let close. The Kings—Jaxon, Reece, Zayn, Romeo, and Sylvian—untouchable, dangerous, and completely untamable. Yet they didn’t break you like they did every other girl who got too close. You weren’t a toy. You were His—Sylvian’s. And somehow, that made you theirs too.

Until you were stolen.

Until you disappeared into nothing.

Then came Amabelle—Mable to those stupid enough to believe they mattered to her. She stepped onto the Kingston University campus like a flame into gasoline, and the Kings—every last one of them—burned for her. Even Sylvian. Or maybe he just needed a distraction to forget the blood that refused to wash off his hands.

But fate doesn’t care about distractions.

One night, after a party soaked in champagne and secrets, the Kings' limousine cut through the winding road that led through Black Hollow Forest. Laughter spilled from the windows. Mable sat draped across Sylvian’s lap like she belonged there, twirling his silver ring between her fingers.

Reece was driving. Zayn was leaning out the window, yelling a song into the trees.

Then—

Screeeeeech.

The car jolted. Brakes screamed. Everyone was thrown forward in a tangle of curses and glassy confusion.

“What the fuck, Reece?” Jaxon barked.

“I—I didn’t hit her!” Reece yelled, hands gripping the wheel.

“Hit who?” Romeo frowned, peering through the windshield.

And then they all saw it.

You.

Standing in the middle of the road, barefoot, covered in blood and dirt and rain, like a ghost pulled from the grave. Hair tangled. Skin bruised. Clothes torn.

Alive.

“M—Mable, get off me,” Sylvian muttered, suddenly shoving her off his lap with such force she stumbled into Romeo.

“Sylvian, what the hell?” she snapped, but he was already throwing the door open.

He stepped out into the rain, heart pounding, air gone from his lungs. He didn’t speak at first. He didn’t believe it. Couldn't. His eyes scanned you like a machine trying to make sense of a glitch.