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
AriaIt was supposed to be simple. That’s what Lira had said.We were curled up on the stiff mattress in her motel room. The air smelt like mildew and cigarette smoke. Her voice was cool as she detailed it all like it was just another story.“You get him in bed,” she’d whispered. “Tell him it’s a game—cops and robbers, prisoner and Luna, whatever. Bind him, make it sexy. Then stab him. Wolfsbane-coated steel, right in the heart. He’ll burn from the inside out. It’ll look like foreplay gone wrong. You’ll walk out clean. That easy.”She had made it sound like brushing your teeth. Like tying your shoelaces. But now I was lying beside Kol. And it was anything but easy.The room was dark, the only source of light was the moon. The sheets were tangled at our feet, his breathing soft, deep, peaceful. He was fast asleep. He was vulnerable.He trusted me. That’s what made it hard.The knife was under my pillow. I could feel its weight. Lira’s words kept repeating in my head, pushing me closer
AriaJeremy dropped to the floor, lifeless as his blood spread across the carpet. Nothing moved inside me.I could not scream. I was unable to breathe. The only thing to hear was the sound of his last breath and the slow, careful steps of her boots.My heart stopped as I looked up, staring with a hollow feeling in my chest— she was right there above me.Lira. And she was alive.This wasn’t a vision. She wasn’t in my dreams. She wasn’t in a haunted memory. But real. Before me, a woman in bloody leather, holding a bloodstained knife and wearing an evil smile.“Oops,” she said, tilting her head slightly like we were children again. “Did I happened to ruin your reunion, my dear sister?”I stumbled and leaned against a wall as my hand pressed against my lips, trying to keep my heart from breaking out of my ribs.“I—What—” I stumbled when trying to say something. “Lira?”“You’re not imagining things, if that’s what you’re thinking,” She bent towards him and nudged Jeremy’s body with her f
LiamI drove through the far side of the territory. I had packed light—just a duffel bag with clean clothes, bottled water, and takeout from Kol’s private kitchen. The roads were quiet. Dust and wind rose behind me as I turned off the main path and approached a secluded motel where she was hiding.Room 11. Back corner. Low visibility. Just the way she liked it.I knocked once, hard. It didn’t take much time.She opened the door and standing there was Lira, crossed-armed and leaning against the frame.“Took you long enough,” Lira commented, with a raised eyebrow.I rolled my eyes and pushed the bag into her arms. “I had to be careful. You're not exactly supposed to exist right now.”“Relax,” she said with a scoff. “I haven’t even left the building.”“Now, this is a lie,” I countered. “You left the day of the wedding. You were there, Lira. You risked everything just to watch them say ‘I do.’”Her expression darkened.“That was months ago,” she muttered, walking back into the room.I fol
AriaI had promised Kol he didn’t have to worry about Jeremy. I looked him in the eyes and said it with so much certainty you’d think I believed it myself.But the thing about promises is that they’re easy to make when everything feels simple. When you’re wrapped in warmth, lying in bed beside someone who, despite everything, makes you feel safe. It’s easy to say the right thing when your chest isn’t knotted with guilt.But here I was, scarf pulled high around my neck, sunglasses hiding eyes that didn’t lie as easily as my mouth did. Slipping into the back of a black sedan, whispering to the driver not to alert the guards.“Just a friend,” I said into the rearview mirror. Very casual and smooth.The truth? I had no business being out here.My heart was already Kol’s. I knew that. Even if I tried to deny it, even if he had gone cold and distant, even if he smiled at Kathy like she hadn’t once spat in my face, I had made my choice.But Jeremy… he wasn’t a loose end. He was a chapter I’d