KINGDOM OF ECHOES (THE STARS REMEMBER · BOOK THREE #5)

Chapter One The Door That Should Not Exist

Lyra Solis stood at the edge of her own bedroom and stared at a door that had not been there yesterday.

It was made of dark wood, old and smooth, with no handle. Just a small circle carved into the center, shaped like a star with too many points.

"Cassian," she called. "Come look at this."

Cassian Vale appeared in the doorway behind her within seconds. He always seemed to be near when she needed him. She used to find that strange. Now, after everything they had learned, she understood why. He had spent centuries learning how to be near her in time.

He looked at the door and went very still.

"You know what this is," Lyra said. It was not a question. She had learned to read the stillness in his body. When Cassian went quiet like this, he was hiding something.

"I have seen it before," he said carefully. "A long time ago."

"How long?"

"Long enough that I hoped I would never see it again."

Lyra crossed her arms. Ever since Book Two — ever since she had learned about her past lives, and the terrible thing she had once done to Cassian — she had promised herself something. No more secrets between them. Not from her side, and not from his.

"Tell me," she said.

Cassian rubbed a hand across his jaw. It was a gesture she had come to know well. It meant he was choosing his next words with great care.

"It is a door to the Kingdom of Echoes," he said. "(A hidden realm where every lost memory still exists, as real as the day it happened.)"

Lyra felt her heartbeat quicken. "A realm made of memories?"

"Not made of them. It holds them. Every memory that has ever been forgotten, erased, or buried by time — it goes there. It waits there. Nothing is ever truly lost. It is only hidden."

"And you have been there," Lyra said.

"Once." His jaw tightened. "A very long time ago. I swore I would never go back."

"Then why is the door here now?"

Cassian did not answer right away. Instead he stepped closer to the door and pressed two fingers against the star-shaped carving. The wood seemed to breathe under his touch, like it was alive.

"Because something wants us to remember," he said quietly. "And I do not think it is going to give us a choice."

Outside, the sky over the city had changed.

Lyra had noticed it three nights in a row now — new stars, arranged in patterns that should not exist, the same strange lights that had first brought her and Cassian together.

Only now the patterns were moving. Shifting.

Like something enormous was slowly waking up.

"The stars are calling us again," Lyra whispered.

"Yes," Cassian said. "And this time, I think they want us to go inside."