°•♡Chapter 51~ Path of the Hollow Flame

I blinked.

I was staring straight up at the starry sky. My head ached, and an unsettling chill still clung to the back of my neck, crawling down my spine, making it hard for me to breathe.

Where... how long had I been out?

I sat up slowly, only to freeze when I saw a shadow stir near the tree closest to me.

“Aria?”

My breath hitched, but I recognized the voice almost immediately.

Lucien.

He stepped into view, the moonlight highlighting his features. “You were unconscious. What the hell were you doing out here alone?”

“I could ask you the same,” I muttered, looking down to see I'd been covered with a heavy coat—Lucien's no doubt.

His jaw flexed, and I could already feel the judgment radiating off him. “I was leaving. But then I saw you lying on the ground and thought maybe someone attacked you. Again.”

I stood up, clinging onto the coat as if Lucien hadn't been the one to put it over my naked body—the thought made my cheeks burn. “I wasn’t attacked. I was following someone. A man in a