CHAPTER TWENTY: ARIA

Sleep proved impossible that night.

Every time I closed my eyes, I was assaulted by vivid images that felt more like memories than dreams – ancient forests bathed in silver moonlight, figures in flowing robes speaking in that haunting language that echoed constantly in my head and always, always, a sense of something vast and powerful stirring just beneath the surface of my consciousness.

By three AM, I gave up entirely and found myself standing at my window, staring out at the forest that surrounded the pack house.

The trees seemed different somehow in the darkness, almost alive with their own mysterious energy.

Every instinct I possessed was screaming at me to go to them, to walk among their shadows and finally understand what they'd been trying to tell me all along.

The buzzing under my skin had reached an almost unbearable intensity and I could feel something building inside me like pressure before a storm.

My reflection in the window glass looked strange – my eyes seemed brighter somehow, almost luminous in the darkness and when I moved my hands, I could swear I saw faint traces of silver light following my fingertips.

A soft knock at my door made me jump, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"Aria? Are you awake?"

The voice belonged to Kayla, Alpha Kael's sister and she sounded genuinely concerned.

I opened the door to find her standing in the hallway wearing pajamas and a worried expression.

"I couldn't sleep either," she admitted with a rueful smile.

"I kept sensing... something. Like the air itself was charged with electricity. I thought you might be experiencing something similar."

"You could sense that?"

"Supernatural energy tends to be contagious in close quarters, especially when it's as strong as what you're radiating right now."

She studied my face with obvious concern.

"Aria, when's the last time you felt completely normal? No buzzing, no whispers, no strange sensations?"

I had to think about that question longer than I should have.

"I honestly can't remember anymore. It's been building for weeks, but especially since I touched those memorial boards." Kayla nodded grimly.

"I was afraid of that. Can I come in? There are some things about our family history that you need to understand, especially after what Lyra shared tonight about the Umbra."

Once we were settled on my bed, Kayla's expression grew unusually serious.

"Aria, I don't know how this will sound but"

"I don't think Victor and Nadine are your real parents."

"No they are my real parents, they are my family"

Even as I said the words, they felt hollow and unconvincing in my mouth.

"Do you have any relatives that died in a car accident years ago?"

"Yes, my Uncle and his wife" I whispered not able to remember their faces.

"What if I told you that Victor Vale has never told you the truth about anything? Not about your parents, not about how you came to live with his family, and certainly not about what you really are."

My blood turned cold. "What do you mean? Were those my parents?"

Before Kayla could answer, the temperature in my room dropped noticeably, and frost began forming on the window glass despite the mild September weather.

Both of us watched in fascination and growing alarm as delicate ice crystals spread across the surface in intricate, geometric patterns.

"That's not normal," I whispered.

"No, it's not. But it is a sign that your abilities are finally breaking through whatever bindings have been placed on them."

Kayla's voice carried a mixture of excitement and fear.

"Aria, I think you're—"

The sound of splintering wood cut her off mid-sentence.

My bedroom door exploded inward, torn completely off its hinges by something with inhuman strength.

In the doorway stood a figure I recognized but had never truly seen before – Marcus Webb, but transformed into something that definitely wasn't entirely human.

His features had elongated and sharpened, his skin had taken on a grayish, mottled appearance and his eyes had turned completely black.

When he smiled, I saw multiple rows of needle-sharp teeth that belonged in the mouth of a deep-sea predator, not a werewolf.

"Finally," he said, his voice carrying harmonics that no human throat should be able to produce.

"I was beginning to think you'd never manifest properly."

Kayla immediately positioned herself between us, her own transformation beginning as she prepared to shift into her wolf form.

"Marcus, what the hell are you?"

"I'm evolution," he replied casually, as if we were discussing the weather.

"I'm what happens when the old bloodlines are improved through careful application of Umbra enhancement techniques and I'm here to collect what rightfully belongs to my organization.

"The buzzing under my skin reached a crescendo that was actually painful and suddenly I understood with crystal clarity what was happening.

"You've been watching me. Reporting on me."

"For months now, yes. Documenting your progression, waiting for the right moment when your powers would be strong enough to survive the extraction process."

He pulled a device from his pocket that looked like a cross between a scanner and some kind of supernatural taser.

"The Umbra have been searching for someone with your specific abilities for decades. You're going to help us reshape the supernatural world."

"She's under the protection of this pack," Kayla snarled, her wolf now so close to the surface that her human form was barely containing it.

"Protection?" Marcus laughed, the sound like breaking glass.

"From whom? Your brother, who's currently unconscious in his office thanks to the sedatives I slipped into his evening coffee? The pack members who are all sleeping peacefully thanks to the gas I introduced into the ventilation system? There's no one coming to help you."

Before either Kayla or I could react, he raised his device and fired what looked like a bolt of dark energy directly at her.

She collapsed immediately, her partially shifted form reverting to human as she fell unconscious.

"Now then," Marcus said, turning his full attention to me,

"let's discuss your heritage properly. Do you know what you are, Aria? What power flows through your veins?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I managed, though the lie felt obvious even to me.

"Don't you? The voices in your head speak the ancient tongue of the moon witches. Light pours from your skin when you're emotional. You can sense the memories embedded in consecrated objects and commune with spiritual energy that should be impossible for any single being to contain."

He circled closer, like a predator that had cornered its prey.

"You're not ordinary, child. You are from a bloodline everyone believed was extinct. You are Lumina"

The word hit me like a physical blow. Lumina.

Somewhere deep in my bones, something recognized that designation and responded with a surge of power so intense that every piece of glass in the room – windows, mirror, drinking glasses – began to vibrate with harmonic frequency.

"That's impossible," I whispered, but even as I said it, I knew he was speaking the truth.

"Is it? Tell me, what do you remember about your real parents?"

Images flashed through my mind – not the sanitized version of Victor and Nadine, but something else. Something real. Fire and smoke and the sound of breaking glass. Men in dark clothing dragging me away from a burning building while I screamed for my parents. Victor's younger face saying they were gone, that she, being I was alone now, that I should be grateful he was willing to take me in."

"They didn't die in a car accident," I said, the truth hitting me like a lightning strike.

"You killed them. All of you. You murdered my family and stole me."

"We liberated you," Marcus corrected.

"We saved you from a life of hiding your true nature and now it's time for you to embrace your destiny."

The power building inside me reached a breaking point.

Silver light exploded from every pore of my body, so intense that Marcus had to shield his transformed eyes.

When the light faded, I found myself standing in the center of a perfect circle where everything within six feet had been fundamentally changed – the wooden floor now gleamed like polished crystal, the fabric of my bedding had transformed into something that looked like spun starlight and the very air shimmered with residual magical energy.

"Magnificent," Marcus breathed, his monstrous features returning to a more human appearance.

"Even more powerful than we dared hope."

But before he could move toward me, the doorway filled with another presence.

Alpha Kael stood there, very much conscious and radiating fury so intense that his wolf was clearly fighting for control.

His blue eyes blazed with otherworldly light, and when he spoke, his voice carried the absolute authority of an Alpha whose mate was being threatened.

"Get away from her."

Marcus's smile widened.

"Too late, Alpha. The awakening has begun, and there's no stopping what comes next."

He raised his device again, but this time aimed it directly at me.

Dark energy lanced out, and the last thing I saw before unconsciousness claimed me was Kael's anguished expression as my newly awakened power spiraled completely out of control.