LiraI hadn’t expected him to figure it out so soon. Kol. The pain in my thigh was blinding, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Not in front of the elders. Not in front of anyone.My jaw clenched as I steadied my breath. The warmth of blood spread beneath my dress, trickling down my leg where the silver blade pinned me to the velvet chair.Kol's voice was calm, measured. But his eyes burned with anger."Where is she?"My silence was its own answer.We sat like that for a moment, two enemies wearing familiar faces. He, the betrayed. I, the betrayer. But I could still win. I always won.“I think,” I said, forcing my voice steady, “this isn’t the place for whatever it is you think you’re doing.”Kol didn’t blink.I turned to Elder Malkir and the rest of the elders gathered, who was watching us with a puzzled expression.“Please, Elder,” I said with a strained smile, “a matter’s come up back at the estate. We’d appreciate a few minutes of privacy.”The elder raised his brows but n
KolI found the car’s quietness to be a little boring.Sitting beside the driver, Liam was quiet as the car rolled down the street. At the back, next to me, was Aria. She was rested with her hands folded comfortably on her lap. Even though she looked relaxed and uninterested, her eyes kept following the trees outside.I was able to see everything she did from the corner of my eye. She hadn’t commented much on anything we did after we left the estate.Maybe that was normal. Maybe it wasn’t. I hated how unsure I’d become. Still, I needed to say something. I couldn’t let this silence linger.“So,” I said, clearing my throat. “You never answered the one thing I asked.”She turned toward me slowly. “Kol I—““Why?” I asked. “Why did you try to kill me?”There was a pause, one beat too long.“I…” she started, then looked away again. “I was confused. I was angry. I thought you were someone else—someone who’d hurt my sister. I thought you were the villain in all of this.”Her voice was softer
Aria/ Lira PoV I had never run so fast in my life. The cab driver had dropped me a few blocks away from the Lannister Estate and I decided to walk and sneak my way in, knowing fully well that Kol would have his guards be on the look out for me. Which was why I didn’t wait for the guards to notice me. I used the same secret escape route I’d once used to leave. The narrow path behind the east stables, half-covered in vines.Now I was using it to return.The moment I found myself in the courtyard, two guards noticed me, startled. One of them reached for a weapon, but I didn’t slow down. I pushed through the side door, ignoring their protests, and stormed into the estate.I found Kol in the main hall, standing in front of a mirror. His shirt was crisp, half-buttoned and the black collar brushing the edge of his jaw. He looked like a man built to own every room he entered. He was adjusting his cufflinks.His reflection caught mine in the mirror. Then he turned.And after that, a long pau
LiraThree years agoI used to count the cracks on my ceiling. Forty-seven. Then forty-eight when the rain cracked the plaster. Then forty-nine. A spider had spun a web between two of them, and I named it Aria. Ironic, wasn’t it? The real Aria was somewhere far away in the New Moon Pack, probably walking in gardens, probably laughing at boys who offered to be her mate.And me?I was wilting in a locked room. My only sunlight rationed through morning hours when my father unlatched the windows, always watching. Always timing it.“You’ll get sick,” he’d say if I stayed too long in the sun. But that wasn’t what he meant. He meant: you’ll get ideas.And I did. In that room, I built fantasies and kingdoms and knives out of paper. I wrote letters I was forced to send, filled with fabricated joys and cheerful lies. “I’m fine,” I wrote to Aria. “They’re good to me. I like it here.“None of it was real. My hands shook with every word. But I couldn’t tell her the truth. Not while he always watch
AriaI hailed a cab to my uncle’s house that night. My hands trembled as I raised them. The street was quite empty and quiet. And the moon was barely out. I didn’t have a jacket on. I only had a scarf wrapped carelessly around my neck and the scent of blood that was beginning to dry on my skin.The cab came to a sudden stop.“Where to?” the driver asked through the cracked window, eyeing me warily.I took my seat at the back seat without a word, wincing as I adjusted for comfort. “My uncle’s house. On Easy street.”The driver turned on the meter and nodded, taking another look at me through the rearview mirror. His eyes caught the blood on my skin.“You alright?” he asked. “Looks like you got into a hell of a fight.”I didn’t answer. He kept glancing at me through the mirror, clearly torn between curiosity and fear. His fingers tapped the wheel. “If someone hurt you, miss... there’s a station five minutes back. I could—”“No.” My voice cut too sharply. I softened it. “Thank you. Just
KolThe room reeked of antiseptic and whiskey. And the sharp sting of both lived rent free on my tongue. One burned down my throat while the other filled my lungs.I was sitting in the infirmary. The bandages around my ribs were uncomfortably tight, as if they wanted to hold my body together at places surgery couldn’t assist.I stared at the half-empty glass in my hand for some time. It trembled slightly, but not from weakness. And not from the pain either, though it throbbed like a constantly in my side.No.The tremble came from what Aria had tried to do. She tried to kill me. Even after everything. After I gave her my name, my power, my trust. After I let myself hope, for the first damn time in years, that someone like her could see the man behind the monster.She stabbed me.I downed the rest of the whiskey in one go, letting it sear away what little clarity I had left.Then I threw the glass. It shattered against the far wall.The sound echoed.A second after that, my ribs felt a