KolI sat outside the infirmary, balancing my elbows on my knees and my fingers digging into my scalp.Aria hadn’t made a sound in hours since she was screaming at everyone. She was finally asleep. Her body was worn thin from the spell, the screaming and most especially, the loss. But I couldn’t rest. I couldn’t even blink without seeing her collapse into my arms, without seeing her blood on my hands, her voice cracking as she begged Lira for our child’s life. That sound, it wasn’t something I’d forget. Not today. Not ever.I had sworn to protect her. I had made that promise with conviction, and I failed.And I failed because I let my mercy outweigh my instincts. I listened when she begged me to give Lira a chance. I convinced myself that there was a trace of the old Lira left in that broken body. But there wasn’t. There never was. There was only poison. And I’d let it live and fester.And now, she has taken everything from us.I tightened my fist whilst staring at the floor. This was
AriaThe room was filled with incense and candles. It’s warmth felt shallow even as I held Kol’s while standing before the witch.She laid the components for the ritual before her. The bloodroot that had been freshly plucked from the soil. She dropped it into the bowl first. Then came a strand of Kol’s hair, which she burned slowly. And last, was my offering.The witch looked at me.“The item must be something you hold dear… something sacred.”And so, with my trembling fingers, I reached up to the golden locket around my neck. It caught in my hair for a second, but I yanked it free. My locket.Inside were pictures of me and Lira. One from before everything, before betrayal had names and consequences.The witch nodded and placed it into the bowl. And then, she began.She started with low chants and hums that sounded ancient. The candles flared. For a moment, the ground shook. I clutched Kol’s arm, watching as a dark and violet smoke began to swirl from the bowl, like the colour of a dy
LiraI never meant to fall in love again. But Damian had this way of sitting beside me in silence without making it feel like silence at all. Like I wasn’t some frayed mess of vengeance and regret. Like I was just… a woman. Someone worth saving.And now, knowing he was helping me end the very thing that stood between me and peace, Aria’s child, I couldn’t stop the affection from growing inside me. It was slow and quiet at first, like a fire about to burn out. But now? It burned. And I hated that it did.Still, I let myself enjoy it.We spent mornings in bed, tangled up and sharing wet, steamy, passionate kisses. We shared meals over his firewood stove. We joked. We kissed a lot. And sometimes, we’d watch the sunset and then have sex till the sun had completely disappeared.He didn’t ask questions about the past. Only about the now. Only about me. And it was ruining everything.One morning, as I prepared our breakfast, he walked in, brushing mud off his boots. He smiled, the kind of sm
KolSleep was slowly becoming a luxury I could no longer afford.Aria was beside me, restless. The warning in the garden had made the both of us restless. There was no peace. Not when Lira was still out there, watching, planning, and I had no idea how she made that flower bloom.I slipped out of bed quietly and found Elias waiting at the door, his face was grave.“No breach,” he reported. “No scent trail. No broken gates, no strange footprints.”I clenched my jaw. “She was here, Elias. That flower didn’t bloom itself.”He nodded. “I’m not doubting it. Which leaves us with two possibilities, either she used dark magic… or someone inside helped her.”My stomach twisted at the implication of that. I then turned away and walked down the corridor toward the inner estate with my voice tight. “Tighten the borders. No one gets in or out without my permission. I want the entire staff vetted. Every single one. New, old, doesn’t matter. If anyone so much as sniffed the wrong wind, I want to know
AriaBefore I had woken up to realise that it was all a dream, I found myself screaming in top of my voice.I jumped out of bed with my heart pounding profusely and my body drenched in ice-cold sweat. Instinctively, my hand reached to my belly. And now that I was awake, there was nothing but silence. I could no longer hear the fire, no smoke, no running and no dreadful screams for help. It was nothing but the night.Next to me, Kol lay calmly sleeping, softly breathing in and out. This was the first time in weeks that he had slept like this without waking up to every odd noise. It was something I couldn’t take away from him.And so I gulped down the lump in my throat and climbed out of the bed as quietly as I could.I went out to balcony. I allowed the moonlight touch my bare skin. It felt so cool. The world somehow felt still but I couldn’t say the same about me.That dream, of a burning skyscraper, a building that I had never seen before, the rising fire so hot that I could not touc
Lira I sat at the edge of the bed in Damian’s oversized flannel shirt, my hair still damp from the bath he'd all but forced me to take. The clothes swallowed me whole, but it was the warmest I’d felt in weeks.Damian had left the room, about going to the worn-out sofa, giving me space and giving me distance. He respected that. I hated it.“Damian,” I said softly, turning my head over my shoulder.He stirred immediately. He was always alert and always cautious.“You don’t have to sleep on the couch,” I said. “Come here.”He hesitated. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”I raised a brow. “We’ve shared worse, haven’t we? I bled on your floor, destroyed your furniture, broke your mirror, you bathed me…”“And yet I’m still here,” he said dryly.I smiled faintly. “Exactly. So… come here. Share the bed. We’re not strangers anymore.”He stood slowly, walking toward the bed. “We’re not lovers either.”I patted the mattress beside me. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”He watched me for a beat