LOGINThe morning felt⦠different.Not like other mornings when Aria would lay in Lucas's arms, talking about random things. Or the mornings when she'd wait patiently while Lucas made breakfast.This morning was too different.Justāoff.Aria moved quickly around the room, her energy lighter than usual, almost buzzing beneath her skin as she pulled on her shoes and reached for her bag. There was a quiet excitement in her chest she hadnāt felt in a long time.Something simple.Something normal.And she liked it.A lot.āI donāt like it.āLucasās voice cut through the space before she even reached the door.Aria paused, her hand hovering midair before she slowly turned to look at him.He was watching her.Not casually.Not the way he usually didāwith that quiet, steady calm that made everything feel grounded.This was different.His gaze was sharper.More focused.Suspicious.āā¦Donāt like what?ā she asked carefully.āThe way youāre eager to leave.āHer brows pulled together slightly. āIām not
Time had never moved this slowly before.Aria stared blankly at the board, her chin propped against her palm as the instructor went over something she already knewāsomething she had perfected days ago.Measurements. Ratios. Techniques.All of it felt⦠repetitive.Familiar.Too familiar.A quiet yawn slipped past her lips before she could stop it, her eyes watering slightly as she blinked away the heaviness pulling at them.Lack of sleep.That was Lucasās fault.Her lips twitched faintly at the thought.He had been particularly unreasonable the night beforeāpersistent in that calm, unshakable way of his that made it almost impossible to argue.Or leave.Or sleep.She exhaled softly, shifting in her seat before finally giving in, letting her head fall forward onto the desk.Just for a moment.Just to rest her eyes.The faint hum of the classroom blurred around herāvoices, movement, the soft scrape of tools against surfacesāall blending into something distant.Muted.Safe.It was barely
Peace, Aria realized, was a dangerous thing.Not because it was fragileābut because it made you forget.And she had forgotten.Not entirely, not in a way that erased what Selene had said or the weight of it⦠but enough that the sharp edge of it had dulled. Enough that the fear no longer sat in her chest like something alive.Days had passed. Then weeks.Nothing happened.No looming threat. No whispers in the dark. No signs that anything had shifted beneath the surface of their world.And somehow⦠life had continued.Better than continued.It had bloomed.Lucas had a way of making everything feel⦠effortless.He showed up without warning, sometimes with nothing but that quiet, knowing look in his eyesāand other times with things that made no sense coming from someone like him.Flowers. Books. Jewelry he claimed was āinsignificant,ā though Aria was fairly certain entire fortunes had been spent on them.And then there were the days he took her out.Not extravagant in the way that would'
Aria hadnāt opened the door in hours.At first, it had been angerāsharp, defensive, hot in her chest like a shield she refused to lower. But anger was a short-lived companion. It burned fast, bright⦠and then it left.What remained was something colder.Quieter.Something that sat in her ribs and refused to move.She stayed curled on the edge of the bed, still dressed, still unmoving, staring at nothing in particular. The curtains were drawn, the room dim, but not dark enough to hide from her thoughts.Seleneās voice hadnāt left her.YOU DONāT BELONG HERE.YOU'RE DESTROYING EVERYTHINGYOU WILL BE THE REASON HE FALLS.A knock came again.Soft this time.āAria,ā Leviās voice filtered through the door, smooth, careful. āYouāve been in there all day.āShe didnāt answer.There was a pause, then a quieter addition, almost reluctant."You shouldn't be like this... he's worried."Her fingers tightened slightly against the fabric of the bedspread.Still, she said nothing.Footsteps retreated.
āThe mansion felt different at night.āColder.āNot in temperatureābut in presence.āāThe silence stretched longer, deeper, as though the walls themselves were listening. Shadows clung to the corners more boldly, shifting with a life of their own, bending around the dim glow of the chandeliers that barely pierced the darkness.āāBy the time Lucas stepped into the grand hall, the air already carried her presence.āHe didnāt need to look.āHe knew.āSelene stood by the towering window, her back to him, her silver hair catching faint light as it spilled over her shoulders like liquid moonlight. Beyond the glass, the night stretched endlessly, the horizon swallowed in darkness.āShe didnāt move.āāDidnāt acknowledge him.āāLucas stopped just a few steps behind her.āSilence settled between them.āāHeavy.āāUnspoken.āāTime passed.āāSecondsāor minutes.āāThenāāāāYouāre unusually quiet,ā Selene said at last, her voice smooth, almost bored. āI thought you would have come in here
The apartment was quiet. Not the heavy, suffocating silence of Lucas's mansion, where every shadow seemed to watch and every corner felt like it held secrets older than time itself. No. This silence was lighter. Human. Ordinary. And yet...it still didn't feel like home. Aria stood in the middle of the living room, her arms loosely folded as she took it all in again_as she had done every morning since she moved in. It was a modest space, but carefully chosen. The walls were painted in soft neutral tones, the furniture modern and simple, with just enough elegance to remind her that this wasn't something she could have afforded on her own. A wide window stretched across one side of the room, letting in morning light that spilled across the polished floor in warm, golden streaks. Outside, the city stirred_cars passing, distant voices, life moving on without hesitation. It should have felt comforting. And in some ways...it did. It was nothing like the mansion. Nothing like the
As Lucas prepared himself to meet with the dreaded sea beast, he wondered if it was a wise decision to make. Levi had tried to talk him out of it several times, but Lucas couldn't bring himself to listen to him, and give up on his quest. But now, the thoughts lingered, and he was confused on what t
Having known that Behemoth was on Earth to take revenge on him, Lucas feared for Aria's safety. He became uneasy, and he used his connections to see that the cop he had shifted into was dismissed. Lucas knew that dismissing the cop wouldn't make any difference, but he wanted to keep him out of his
Years ago during the time that Lucas had gone on a killing spree, destroying and killing creatures that wouldn't bow in submission to him, Behemoth had been the hardest to break.Legend had it that Behemoth was once the king of hell, thousands of years ago, even before the devil came into power. He
The next morning, as early as 6 am, Lucas called Aria's phone, but after a few rings and she didn't pick up, he got scared and drove to her apartment. "Aria!!!" He yelled and banged on her door. As he was about to break into the house, the door opened and Aria stood there in a night dress lookin







