CHAPTER FIVE: THEY WERE AFRAID OF ME

The moment my power touched the ground, everything changed. The force that left my body was not loud, but it was strong enough to shake the earth beneath my feet, and for the first time, the people who once looked down on me stepped back.

Fear replaced judgment. I stood still, my chest rising slowly as I tried to understand what had just happened, because this was not something I had ever felt before. “This is not possible,” one of the elders said.

But it was happening. I could feel it. The energy inside me was no longer hidden, and it did not feel weak, It felt awake. Kael’s eyes stayed on me, sharp and searching, as if he was trying to see something he had missed before. What are you? He asked.

The question settled heavily between us. I did not answer, not because I did not want to, but because I did not know. The voice inside me spoke again. “Do not let them control you.” My fingers curled slightly. They already tried, I said quietly.

The elders stepped back again. “She cannot stay here,” one of them said quickly. She is unstable. Kael did not speak immediately but his silence felt heavier than their words.

You made your decision, I said, my eyes locking onto his. “You rejected me.” That does not mean I will let you become a danger, he replied.

Something inside me shifted at his words. I am not the danger, I said. The air around me tightened again. They are, the voice whispered.

Before anyone could react, the power inside me surged again. The energy inside me did not slow the way it had before, and instead, it gathered more tightly, pressing against my chest with a steady force that felt deliberate.

I could feel it responding to something deeper than fear, something that had shifted the moment I stopped trying to push it away. My breathing became slower, more controlled, even as the pressure increased, and for the first time, I did not feel like I was losing myself to it.

I felt aware. Every movement around me became clearer, every reaction sharper, as if the world itself had adjusted to match whatever was happening inside me. Kael’s voice reached me again, but it sounded distant now, like it no longer held the same weight.

“Aria, stop,” he said. I did not answer him because I was no longer trying to stop anything. The truth settled quietly but firmly in my mind, and once it did, there was no pushing it away.

The force inside me did not slow the way it had before, and instead it spread further, pressing outward in a steady wave that made the air feel heavier around us.

I could feel every movement more clearly, every shift of weight, every breath that came from the people standing around me, and it was overwhelming in a way I could not explain.

But it was not chaotic. It was controlled. Not perfectly, but enough for me to understand that this was not something breaking apart inside me, it was something forming.

Kael’s voice cut through the tension again, sharper this time. “Aria, pull it back,” he said. I turned my head slowly toward him, and for a moment, I saw something in his expression that had not been there before.

I do not think I should, I said. The words left my mouth before I could stop them, but once they did, they felt right in a way nothing else had.

The voice inside me stirred again, “Do not hold it back.” My breath slowed. My body steadied. And for the first time, I did not feel like I was losing control. I felt like I was standing at the edge of something I was meant to step into. This time, it did not stop.