deceive him.
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MANY MONTHS HAD passed since Haven had last set foot in the Ouroboros Society headquarters. But while the organization lay on the other side of the Atlantic, it was never very far from her mind. Housed in a stately, ivy-covered mansion on the edge of Gramercy Park in Manhattan, the Society had once been devoted to the scientific study of reincarnation. Its benevolent founder had always maintained that people born with knowledge of previous livesâpeople like Iain Morrow and Haven Mooreâshould devote themselves to improving the world. Adam Rosier had changed all that. Since he had taken over the OS, he had turned the organization into his own sinister social club. Individuals with unusual memories still flocked to Gramercy Park from all over the world, hoping to learn more about the lives theyâd once led. Many of them arrived with remarkable skills they had built over multiple lifetimes. There were medical savants and mathematical geniuses. Artists and actors. Politicians whose words could fire up crowds or leave them in tears. Pianists who could conjure heaven with their fingertips.
It didnât matter who they were or what their abilities might have been. Once they became members, they found themselves slaves to the OSâs system. The Eternal Ones (as they called themselves) were all given accounts and instructed to earn valuable âpointsâ by helping one another. The system seemed perfectly harmless until members discovered that OS points could buy anything the heart secretly desiredâfame, fortune, drugs, or sex. Eventually, power and points became every memberâs obsessions. Those who refused to play the game were visited by Adamâs obedient army of âgray menââand some were never seen again. But few refused, and each time the Society recruited a new member, the world grew just a little bit darker.
That was Adam Rosierâs plan, after all. He was the subject of Marta Vegaâs eerie paintingsâthe dark figure who set tragedies in motion. What he was could only be answered by scholars, shamans, or priests. For thousands of years he had wandered the globe, wreaking havoc, spreading lies, and feeding chaos wherever he found it. But in 1925, he had made Manhattan his home. The Ouroboros Society allowed him to continue his dark work while he waited for the only girl he had ever loved to arrive in New York and fulfill the destiny he had designed for her.
Adam may have preyed on peopleâs darkest desires, but he had a weakness of his own. Haven Moore. They had been married once in a life two thousand years in the past, but Adamâs fear of losing her had led him to lock Haven away. She escaped from confinement with the help of a servant sheâd come to see as her soul mate, but Adam was unwilling to let her go. Instead, he had followed Haven across countless lifetimes, and there were few crimes he hadnât committed in his pursuit of her.
In this lifetime, Adam had located Haven when she was too young to run from him. He had been watching her since she was nine years oldâkeeping her safe and waiting for her to come of age. But despite Adamâs best efforts, Haven and Iain were drawn together once more. In order to live out their days in peace, theyâd had to trick the man in black. Haven had convinced Adam that sheâd fallen out of love with her soul mate, and Iain had faked his own death. Believing heâd defeated his adversary, Adam promised Haven one life of freedom. He would patiently wait until she was reborn to make her his wife once again.
It was a promise Adam made because he believed that his rival was deadâand that the love that brought Haven and Iain together again and again had finally been destroyed. If Adam discovered that Iain was aliveâif he knew they were still madly in love and living in Italyâthere was no telling what the consequences might be. Before Iain âdied,â Adam