CHAPTER Two
1795 Words
Mira*
She made it to the bathroom before her hands started shaking.
“Okay,” she whispered to herself. “That was fine. That was normal. CEOs don’t usually feel like they’ve known you since kindergarten.”
Except he did. And she felt it too. Like a ghost of a memory she couldn’t reach.
She splashed cold water on her face and looked in the mirror.
Mira Vale. 21 years old. College senior. Intern at Blackwell Industries. No criminal record, no weird past, no reason for a billionaire CEO to look at her like she was a missing piece.
So why did it feel like she’d just met the other half of herself?
She didn’t have an answer.
But she had a feeling that this internship was about to get complicated.
And that Caius Blackwell was the reason why
The rest of the day passed in a blur of introductions, Slack channels, and the low-level panic of not screwing up in front of 40 people who knew what a KPI was.
Jason checked on her twice. “You alive?”
“Technically,” Mira said.
“Good. That’s the bar.”
By 5:47 PM, the office had emptied out to the usual skeleton crew of workaholics and people who missed their train. Mira was packing up when her phone buzzed.
*Aunt Selene*: _How’d it go? Did you meet the vampire?_
*Mira*: _His name is Caius and he’s human. Probably._
*Aunt Selene*: _Probably is doing a lot of work in that sentence._
*Mira*: _He’s weird. He said I look familiar._
*Aunt Selene*: _…Mira._
*Mira*: _I know. Don’t say it._
*Aunt Selene*: _I’m saying it anyway. Be careful. People who feel familiar too fast usually want something from you._
Mira stared at the message. Selene wasn’t wrong. But “familiar” wasn’t the word. It felt older than that. Like recognition without memory.
She shoved the phone in her bag and left. The city outside was loud, neon, and indifferent. She liked it that way. Cities didn’t care who you were. They just let you be.
Her apartment was a 15-minute bus ride and a 7-minute walk through a neighborhood that smelled like fried dough and exhaust. The building was old, brick, with a buzzer that only worked if you hit it just right.
Selene was waiting in the kitchen when Mira walked in, a cup of tea steaming in front of her and a look on her face that said “I’ve been thinking.”
Which was never good.
“Sit,” Selene said.
“I’m tired.”
“Sit.”
Mira sat.
Selene pushed the tea toward her. Chamomile and something else. Something that made the ache behind Mira’s eyes ease up.
“You felt it today,” Selene said. Not a question.
Mira sighed. “I don’t know what I felt. It was stupid.”
“Nothing about him is stupid, Mira.” Selene’s voice was low now. Serious. “You know that.”
Mira froze. “What are you talking about?”
Selene blinked, like she’d said too much. “Nothing. I meant—billionaires. They’re all weird. You felt the weight of it.”
Mira wasn’t buying it. Selene’s eyes were doing that thing they did when she was lying for Mira’s own good.
“Did you know him?” Mira asked quietly.
Selene set her cup down. “Eat something. You didn’t eat all day.”
That was an answer. Just not the one Mira wanted.
---
*Caius*
He didn’t go home.
He went to the top floor, to the room no one else had access to. Floor 60. No windows. Just walls lined with screens and a desk with one file on it.
Mira Vale.
His assistant had sent over everything in two hours. Clean. Too clean.
Born in Portland. Raised by her aunt Selene Vale after her parents died in a car accident when she was 7. Good student. No social media before age 18. No gaps in her record. No connections to Blackwell Industries before this internship.
Except—
He zoomed in on a photo from her 8th-grade yearbook. She was standing next to a boy with dark hair and gray eyes. The photo was blurry, but the way they were standing… shoulders touching, like it was automatic. Like they’d done it a hundred times.
The boy’s name was listed as “C. Vale.” No first name.
C. Vale.
Caius Vale.
His stomach twisted.
He’d changed his name at 18. Legally. Cut ties with everything before that. A clean break. He’d told himself it was for security. For business. For survival.
But he’d never been able to explain why the name “Mira” made his chest tight.
He closed the file. His jaw was clenched so hard it hurt.
Someone had erased something. And he was going to find out what.
---
*Mira*
She had the dream again.
It always started the same way. Moonlight. Trees. Cold stone under her palms.
A boy with dark hair and gray eyes, laughing. His hand in hers.
“Mira,” he said. “Promise me.”
“Promise what?”
“That you’ll remember me. Even if they make us forget.”
She woke up at 3:17 AM, heart racing, sheets tangled around her legs.
Selene was already in the doorway, leaning against the frame.
“Bad one?”
Mira nodded.
Selene didn’t ask what it was about. She never did.
“Go back to sleep,” Selene said. “You’ve got work in five hours.”
Mira lay back down. “Selene?”
“Hmm?”
“Did I ever have a friend named Caius?”
Silence.
Then: “Go to sleep, Mira.”
---
*Day 2 at Blackwell*
Caius didn’t come down to Marketing.
That was unusual. Jason said he usually popped in at least once on day two to “see who survived.”
Instead, Mira got an email at 9:03 AM.
*Subject*: 11 AM. My office. Come alone.
*From*: C. Blackwell
Alone. Great.
She spent the next two hours pretending she wasn’t going to throw up. She revised the deck three times. She re-read her notes. She checked her outfit.
At 10:58 AM, she knocked on his door.
“Enter.”
He wasn’t by the window this time. He was sitting behind his desk, a file open in front of him. Her file.
He didn’t look up when she came in.
“Sit.”
Mira sat.
“How much do you remember about your childhood before age 8?” he asked. No greeting. No small talk.
Mira’s blood went cold.
“Why?”
“Answer the question.”
“I… not much. Car accident. My parents died. I went to live with my aunt.”
“And before that?”
“Nothing. It’s blank.”
He closed the file.
“Liar.”
Mira stood up. “Excuse me?”
“You said nothing. But you dream about it. Don’t you?”
Her knees felt weak. She sat back down.
“How do you know that?”
“Because I do too,” Caius said quietly.
The room went silent.
Mira stared at him. Really looked at him. The sharp jaw. The gray eyes. The way his left eyebrow twitched when he was annoyed.
“Do you remember a place?” he asked. “Stone. Trees. A valley.”
Mira’s breath hitched.
“Do you remember promising someone you’d never forget them?”
Tears stung her eyes. She didn’t know why.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I don’t know.”
Caius stood up and walked around the desk. He stopped in front of her, close enough that she could see the faint scar on his left hand.
“I think we were erased,” he said. “I think someone didn’t want us to find each other again.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Because what we had was dangerous to them.”
Mira shook her head. “This is insane. You’re insane.”
“Maybe,” Caius said. “But look at me, Mira.”
She did.
And for the first time since she walked into this building, the world stopped being loud.
It was just him.
Just the boy from the dream.
Just the promise.
“I don’t know how to prove it to you,” he said. “But I know you. I know you like I know my own name.”
“Then tell me my name,” Mira said, half-laughing, half-crying. “If you know me, say it.”
Caius’s eyes softened.
“Mira Vale. My Mira.”
The words hit her like a key turning in a lock.
Something behind her eyes unlocked.
Flash.
Stone under her hands.
His laugh.
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
Mira gasped and grabbed the edge of the desk to stay upright.
Caius caught her before she could fall.
“Easy,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
And she believed him. Even though she shouldn’t. Even though it made no sense.
Because for the first time in 13 years, she remembered his name.
“Caius,” she whispered.
He closed his eyes like he’d been waiting 13 years to hear it.
“I know,” he said.
---
*The Fall*
The door opened.
Ms. Chen stood there, face pale.
“Mr. Blackwell, we have a problem. The board—” She stopped when she saw Mira in his arms.
Caius set Mira down slowly, but didn’t let go of her hand.
“What is it?” he asked, voice hard.
“The memory suppression files. They’re leaking. Someone’s asking questions.”
Caius’s jaw tightened.
“Contain it.”
“It’s already out, sir. The coven knows. Your clan knows.”
Mira felt Caius go still beside her.
“Then we don’t have time,” he said.
He turned to Mira.
“They’ll come for you. For both of us. We have to leave. Now.”
Mira looked at him. At the man she’d just met, who felt like home.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Away from here,” Caius said. “To remember everything they took.”
The doors to the office burst open again.
This time, it wasn’t Ms. Chen.
It was security. And behind them, a woman in a black coat with eyes that glowed faintly gold.
A witch.
From the coven.
“Step away from him, Mira Vale,” the woman said. “Or we’ll make you forget him again.”
Mira looked at Caius.
He squeezed her hand.
“Don’t let them,” he said.
Mira stepped forward, putting herself between him and the witch.
“Try me,” she said.
Her hands sparked faintly blue.
- Writer
