LOGINAria POV)Rook finally leaves me at the cafeteria entrance after insisting I try the chili for the third time. He’s still talking about how Ruthless needs a new exhaust when I slip away, ducking down the side corridor that leads outside. The training yard is empty except for one person.Damon stands alone in the center of the dirt oval, facing a heavy bag that hangs from a steel frame. The bag is patched in so many places it looks like a quilt made by someone who hates sewing. He’s shirtless, sweat already shining across his shoulders, and every punch lands with a sound like someone dropping a dictionary on concrete.I stop in the open doorway. My sneakers squeak once on the threshold. He doesn’t turn. He keeps moving, left hook, right cross, elbow strike, pivot. The bag swings wildly each time but never quite knocks him back. I watch longer than I should, arms folded, hip against the doorframe. He knows I’m here. Of course he does. The man can probably hear my heartbeat from across t
( Aria POV)"Rook will come by in the morning," and that is apparently the end of the meeting because he opens a folder and starts reading it like I have already left.I take the hint.I take it loudly, standing up with enough deliberateness that the chair scrapes, and walk out without looking back, which is a very mature and unbothered thing to do and I commit to it completely.Back in my room, I sit on the bed, look at the ceiling until I fall asleep, which takes longer than I would like to admit.Rook knocks at ten the next morning. I open the door and he is already smiling, hands in his jacket pockets, with the expression of someone who has been given an assignment he intends to enjoy far beyond any reasonable professional boundary."Morning, prophecy girl. I'm Rook. Your designated shadow for the foreseeable future."I cross my arms. "You sound way too happy about babysitting duty.""Correction. I'm thrilled about the upgrade from cleaning carburetors to hanging out with the girl
(Aria POV)I don't even startle. I just stop walking and turn around, and there he is, filling the hallway the way he fills every space he occupies, like the architecture quietly rearranged itself to accommodate him. He looks at me. I look back. The silence between us runs exactly long enough for both of us to understand that we are not going to pretend I was not crouched behind a steel shelf listening through a ventilation grate for the last twenty minutes."Come with me," he says.It is not quite a command. His voice doesn't have that particular edge to it, the one that turns words into walls. It lands more like an expectation, steady and patient, the verbal equivalent of a hand extended rather than a door slammed. I notice the distinction. I choose not to make a thing of it."Fine," I say, and follow him.He takes me down a hallway I haven't been in yet, shorter than the others, and pushes open a door at the end. I step inside and clock the room in about four seconds. Maps on the w
(Aria POV)He tells me to stay in my room and walk out, and I last exactly six minutes.In my defence, six minutes is a personal record. I sat on the edge of the bed, I counted the bricks on the wall opposite me, I even picked up the glass of water on the nightstand and drank half of it like a composed, rational adult who respects boundaries. And then the sound of raised voices filtered up through the floor, and my legs just, independently of any instruction from my brain, stood up and walked me out the door.I am not proud of this. I am also not stopping.The hallway outside the council chamber is long and dim, with a ventilation grate set low into the wall about halfway down, behind an ornamental steel shelf nobody has put anything on. I crouch behind the shelf, press my back to the wall, and tuck my knees to my chest.The voices come through the grate in layers, some clearer than others depending on where in the room each person is standing. I piece together the positions fast. The
Damon POVI don't know what exactly is wrong with you or what has gotten into you or why you think Aria is ever going to want you.“I shouted at Mason in disgust as I slammed him against the car more harshly. He laughed.“You crazy asshole. You really think you could just walk into our life and make changes? I thought you were my fucking friend. You were supposed to be my friend. You were in my wedding and now you're taking my bride away from me. Do you even think it makes any sense? Just because you are an Alpha makes you supreme to everything. You are such an ass bitch. You don't know it.”I continued to rant his rubbish. I couldn't take it anymore as I slammed the porch of his cheek.“You are really a fool. Believe it. You are dumb. And I don't even know how exactly I thought I could discuss this matter with you and it would go the way I want it to. Just stay away from me, okay? Stay away from her. Most especially if you had taken perfect care of her, kept her safe, pampered her li
Damon POVI couldn't understand why exactly the council members were deciding to pour all the work on me tonight, but it was so fucking frustrating I didn't even know where to start. I looked at all the files on my desk and turned back to my beta.“Do I really have to do this? Can't you just help me? Sign some documents, do something. I'm kind of fed up with this. I need to see Aria,” I said to him as he laughed, pushing the documents closer to me and placing a pen gently on it.“You have to do it. If you don't, nobody can. Just like nobody else can sign your signature on something. Do you know how it feels when someone tries to do things for you? You should learn to do it. If you want to become a better king, if you want to protect Aria, then you need to be strong enough that she will be protected more than enough. You have to be worthy of her. She is not someone simple who you can just grasp as yours for good,” he said to me as I raised my hands in the air.“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatev
Damon pov“You have to do something about it.”“There is nothing we can do right now. Our hands are tight. And we can't fight Mason alone. You know that he is one step ahead of you. We can't take the risk. He has already threatened that if Aria is not brought to him, then the worst is going to happ
Aria POV“First, we need to find that informer and get rid of him. That is the only way we can win against Mason.”“So how do I come in all of this? How do we stop Mason for the meantime? We can't just keep on wasting time looking for an informer. He's also a spy, so I don't think we'll easily find
I could see the shock clearly evident on her face as she just shook her head. “No, that is not possible. That is not true. I would never believe a word that comes out of your mouth. Why would someone die because of me? I mean, I did not do anything, so why would someone die?”“Because I'm just—”“S
I did not even realize that the eldest council member had already rocked white in front of me where I was sitting on the throne. That was disrespectful. That counted as disrespect for a council member to come up to the throne seats. But I did not even want to think about that. Now I know that he wa







