CHAPTER 6

Aria's POV

I shook my head, “What is going on here?” I never meant to find any prison here.

I was chasing silence, trying to escape the noise in my own head—the whispers, the sideways glances, the way Kael had started avoiding my eyes. The halls under the packhouse were damp and smelled like rust and rot, but I walked anyway, barefoot and restless, torch in hand.

I turned a corner. The cell.

He was slumped over, chained to the wall, blood dried around his mouth. I would’ve looked away—if he hadn’t moved. Just slightly. Just enough to make my heart trip.

And then he looked up.

The world broke.

“Dad?” I whispered, imagining what my eyes were gazing at.

His face was bruised, eyes sunken, but it was him. My adopted father. The man who’d raised me when no one else would. The man Kael said was dead.

He stared at me like I was a ghost. Then his mouth moved. “Aria…”

My knees gave out. I gripped the bars for balance, for reality. “You’re supposed to be dead.”

“I almost was,” he said, voice cracked and low. “But Kael… he put me here. Said I knew too much.”

No.

No, that wasn’t possible.

Kael had mourned him with me. Held me while I cried. Said rogues had ambushed him during a supply run. Said he died a hero.

“You’re lying,” I whispered, but my voice was weak. I didn’t believe it even as I said it.

“Think, Aria,” he rasped. “Why would he keep me alive if I were truly a traitor?”

I couldn’t breathe. My heart pounded too loud in my ears. I turned and ran, the image of him burned into my skull—those eyes, full of guilt and truth.

I didn’t sleep that night.

—--------

Lilith started shadowing Kael like a second skin. I caught her whispering in his ear, too close, her hand brushing his arm. He didn’t pull away. He looked… hollow. Like someone had hollowed him out and left a mask behind.

I tried to speak with him in private. He barely glanced up.

“I’m busy,” he said flatly.

“I saw him,” I blurted. “In the cell. My father.”

His eyes darkened, his jaw tight. “That man is a traitor. Don’t bring him up again.”

“Kael, please. This isn’t you. Lilith—”

He slammed a fist on the desk. “I said *enough*, Aria!”

I stepped back, shocked and silent. He had never raised his voice at me before. Ever.

And then Lilith entered the room as she owned it. Her smile was all sugar and venom. “Is everything okay?”

Kael’s eyes were already on her. Like I didn’t exist.

---

After that, everything shifted.

People stopped talking to me. Not outright—but they averted their eyes, and walked past me like I was air. I heard the whispers. Unstable. Dramatic. Obsessed.

I tried to reach out to Kael again.

This time, he didn’t yell.

He smiled. Cold. Cruel.

“You think I should trust you?” he said. “You’re barely holding it together. Maybe we made a mistake.”

My heart stopped. “We?”

He stood up, and walked around me like I was an enemy in our own home. “You’ve been a liability for weeks. You’re jealous, paranoid, and now you’re seeing ghosts in cells.”

Tears burned at the corners of my eyes which I could not control. “Kael… I’m not lying.” I said, trying to control my voice.

“I think you’re exactly like your father,” he said quietly. “Unstable. Dangerous.”

It shattered something inside me. Not because he was cruel—but because he believed it.

He turned away without a second and took a glance.

---

That night, I packed a bag and left.

I couldn’t stay. Not with him looking at me like a stranger. Not with the pack slowly pushing me out like I never belonged. Not with the ghost of my father rotting in chains beneath my feet.

I couldn't control myself, and I didn’t know where I was going. Just *away*.

My chest ached the whole way. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

I crossed the river by dawn. I didn’t look back.

It was only two days later that the pain started.

A strange cramp is low in my belly. I pressed my hand there and felt something… odd. Something warm. Alive.

I froze.

No. No, it couldn’t be.

I thought back— and counted the days. Remembered the night Kael held me, right before everything began to unravel. The last time he touched me like I mattered.

A sob slipped from my mouth.

I was pregnant.

And I was alone.

I didn’t have long to process it.

That night, I felt it.

A presence.

Something cold moving through the trees. Not natural. Not living. A wolf—but wrong. Made of shadow. Void of scent. It didn’t howl. It didn’t breathe.

It just hunted.

I moved fast, heart hammering, instincts screaming. It followed. Silent. Unstoppable.

I found a cave and squeezed inside, breathing shallowly. It paced outside for hours. Watching. Waiting.

They had sent it to me.

To erase me.

Lilith. Magnus. Maybe even Kael.

I wasn’t sure which truth hurt more.

---

The next morning, I ran and Kept moving. No food, no rest. I was just running.

But I wasn’t fast enough.

By dusk, they found me.

Not just the shadow wolf—but *them*.

Lilith stepped out from the trees like a queen in exile. Magnus followed, his eyes glittering like frost.

She smiled. “Took us long enough.”

My voice trembled. “Why are you doing this?”

“To clean up,” she said sweetly. “You saw what you shouldn’t. And Kael can’t afford loose ends—especially not ones carrying his child.”

I flinched. “He doesn’t know.”

She tilted her head. “No. But he will. Once you’re gone.”

The shadow wolf stepped forward. Its mouth opened, no teeth, no breath—just black.

And then—A howl.

Not from the wolf.

From *behind* me.

A second wolf burst from the trees—huge, silver-eyed, snarling like a force of nature. It slammed into the shadow creature, throwing it aside.

Lilith’s smile dropped, and the silver wolf shifted mid-leap. As a man landed in front of me. He is tall, with wild hair, and familiar eyes.

My heart stuttered.

“You—”

He didn’t let me speak.

“Run,” he growled. “I’ve got this.”

I opened my mouth to argue—but stopped.

His eyes were the same as mine, the same as my father's. A brother.

And as I ran, I heard Lilith scream, the sound twisting into something not human.

Then came a roar, and the forest exploded into war.