The Stranger Who Knew My Name
Chapter One — The Stranger Who Knew My Name
The first time I saw Kael Arden, I was standing in the rain with blood on my hands.
Not my blood.
At least, I didn’t think it was.
I remember staring at my palms, watching the rain slowly wash the dark red stains away. The water ran between my fingers and dripped onto the pavement beneath me, carrying tiny trails of crimson into the gutter.
I should have been screaming.
I should have been running.
Instead, I stood there.
Frozen.
The entire street was empty.
No cars.
No pedestrians.
Not even the distant sound of music from the city.
Only rain.
Heavy, relentless rain that soaked through my clothes and plastered my hair against my face.
I looked around, trying to remember how I’d gotten there.
Nothing.
My last memory was leaving the library.
Then—
Nothing.
A blank space in my mind.
Like someone had taken a pair of scissors and cut an entire section out of my memory.
I swallowed.
“Hello?”
My voice disappeared into the rain.
No answer.
I looked down at my hands again.
The blood was almost gone now.
Almost.
But there was still enough left to make my stomach turn.
Then I felt it.
Someone was watching me.
I slowly lifted my head.
Across the road stood a man beneath a black umbrella.
He wasn’t moving.
He wasn’t looking around.
He was looking directly at me.
My heart immediately began beating faster.
There was something strange about him.
I couldn’t explain what it was.
Maybe it was the way he stood so still while the storm raged around him.
Maybe it was his clothes.
A black shirt beneath a dark coat, perfectly fitted against his broad shoulders.
Or maybe it was his face.
He was beautiful.
Not in the ordinary way.
There was something almost unsettling about him.
Dark hair fell messily across his forehead. His features were sharp, almost impossibly perfect, and his eyes were so dark that I couldn’t tell where the pupils ended.
He looked like someone who didn’t belong in the middle of an empty street at two in the morning.
He looked like someone who belonged in my nightmares.
I took one step backward.
The stranger stepped forward.
My pulse jumped.
“Do I know you?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he crossed the road.
Slowly.
Calmly.
He didn’t hurry despite the rain.
When he reached me, he stopped only a few feet away.
And that’s when I noticed something even stranger.
His clothes were completely dry.
Not damp.
Not even slightly wet.
I stared at his coat.
Then his face.
He noticed.
“You’re staring.”
His voice was low.
Smooth.
And strangely familiar.
“I—”
I stopped.
Why did his voice sound familiar?
I had never met this man before.
I was sure of it.
“Who are you?”
His eyes dropped to my hands.
The moment he saw the remaining blood, something changed in his expression.
Shock.
Fear.
Recognition.
“You’re alive.”
I frowned.
“What?”
He looked at me as though he was seeing a ghost.
“You’re alive,” he repeated.
I took another step backward.
“Yes?”
His jaw tightened.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
A cold shiver ran down my spine.
“I think you have me confused with someone else.”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Too confidently.
His eyes moved over my face.
My hair.
My lips.
My eyes.
Almost as though he were comparing me to a memory.
Then he whispered my name.
“Seren.”
Every muscle in my body went still.
“How do you know my name?”
He didn’t answer.
“Have we met?”
His expression became unreadable.
“No.”
The answer should have made me feel relieved.
Instead, it terrified me.
“Then how do you know my name?”
He looked away.
For the first time, I saw something that looked almost like regret.
“I shouldn’t.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He looked back at me.
And then he said something that made absolutely no sense.
“Someone you promised you’d never love.”
I blinked.
“What?”
“You promised.”
I let out a nervous laugh.
“Okay. You officially sound insane.”
He didn’t smile.
“Seren, you don’t remember.”
“Remember what?”
“You.”
My brows pulled together.
“I’m pretty sure I know who I am.”
“Not the way you think you do.”
The rain seemed to become louder.
I wrapped my arms around myself.
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but you’re clearly mistaken. I’ve never met you.”
His eyes darkened.
“You said that last time too.”
My breath caught.
“Last time?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he reached inside his coat.
I immediately stepped backward.
“What are you doing?”
He pulled out a silver pendant.
I stared at it.
My heart stopped.
I knew that pendant.
Not that exact one.
But the design.
The tiny silver chain.
The small circular pendant hanging from it.
I had one almost identical.
I’d had it since I was a child.
My mother had always told me it belonged to my father.
The man in front of me held his pendant between two fingers.
There was a thin crack running across its center.
“Where did you get that?”
His eyes remained on mine.
“You gave it to me.”
I shook my head.
“No, I didn’t.”
“You did.”
“I’ve never seen you before.”
His expression tightened.
“You gave this to me the night you died.”
The world seemed to tilt.
“What?”
“You begged me to keep it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You told me you’d find me again.”
My throat went dry.
“Stop.”
“You told me—”
“Stop!”
My voice echoed down the empty street.
He fell silent.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then he lowered the pendant.
“You really don’t remember.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
His eyes softened.
And somehow, that was worse than his anger.
Because he looked heartbroken.
Like he had lost me before.
Like he was losing me again.
“What happened to you?” I whispered.
He looked at me.
“You died.”
My chest tightened.
“No, I didn’t.”
“I watched you.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I watched you die, Seren.”
I stared at him.
He stepped closer.
“You were in my arms.”
Something inside my mind cracked.
For half a second, I saw something.
A room.
Dark.
Cold.
Someone screaming.
My own voice.
A pair of hands covered in blood.
And Kael.
Standing over me.
I gasped.
The vision disappeared.
I stumbled backward.
Kael immediately reached for me.
I slapped his hand away.
“Don’t touch me.”
He froze.
His eyes dropped to his hand.
Then back to me.
“Go home.”
“What?”
“Go home, Seren.”
“Why?”
His expression changed.
He looked past me.
Toward the end of the street.
I turned.
There was nothing there.
Just darkness.
“What are you looking at?”
His voice became quieter.
“They’re coming.”
“Who?”
He didn’t answer.
“Kael.”
His eyes snapped back to mine.
I hadn’t even realized I’d said his name.
“How do I know your name?”
He stared at me.
For the first time, genuine fear appeared in his eyes.
“You shouldn’t.”
The streetlights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then every light on the road went out.
Darkness swallowed us.
I heard footsteps behind me.
One.
Two.
Three.
More.
Someone whispered my name.
“Seren…”
I turned.
Nothing.
When I looked back—
Kael was gone.
Completely gone.
The only proof that he’d ever been there was the black umbrella lying on the pavement.
I stared at it.
My breathing became uneven.
Then I looked at my hands.
The blood was gone.
But something else was there.
A mark.
A strange symbol had appeared in the center of my palm.
A circle.
Three lines running through it.
I rubbed at it.
Nothing.
It wouldn’t disappear.
My heart pounded.
Then I noticed something beneath the symbol.
Tiny words.
Four of them.
Words I somehow understood despite never having seen them before.
I will find you again.
I stopped breathing.
A memory suddenly flashed through my mind.
Kael’s face.
His hands around mine.
My own voice whispering through tears.
“If you lose me, find me.”
Then another image.
Blood.
So much blood.
Kael screaming my name.
And me—
dying in his arms.
I stumbled backward.
“No…”
Another memory forced its way into my mind.
His lips against my forehead.
His voice breaking.
“I’ll find you in every lifetime.”
I pressed both hands against my temples.
“Stop.”
The memories kept coming.
A door.
A room filled with strangers.
Kael standing among them.
Someone shouting.
A blade.
Blood.
My scream.
And finally—
darkness.
I opened my eyes.
I was still standing in the rain.
Still alone.
But I knew one thing now.
The stranger hadn’t mistaken me for someone else.
He knew me.
He had known me before.
And somehow…
I had known him too.
The worst part wasn’t remembering that I had died.
It wasn’t the blood.
It wasn’t the strange symbol burning into my palm.
It wasn’t even the fact that Kael Arden had disappeared without leaving a single footprint in the rain.
It was the final memory.
The one my mind had tried hardest to bury.
Because just before I died, I hadn’t been afraid of Kael.
I had been holding his face in my hands.
And I had been smiling.
Then I remembered what I had whispered to him.
Three words.
Three words that made my blood run cold.
“I love you.”
