Chapter Six

The Voice In The Dark

Aurelia’s POV

The darkness was endless.

There was no pain, no sound and no light. Not even a little. Just pure complete darkness. For a fleeting moment, I wondered if this was what death felt like.

Weightless. Silent. Empty.

I tried to open my eyes but nothing happened. When I tried to move, my body refused to obey.

Had I died?

The question drifted through the darkness unanswered. Then, somewhere in the distance, there was…

A drip.

And another.

Water echoed through the silence, slow and rhythmic, like the beating of a fading heart.

‘Lia…’

The voice was barely more than a whisper. It was soft, gentle, unfamiliar, and yet, there was something inside me that stirs when I heard it.

Could it be my mother’s voice?

I wanted to answer but my lips wouldn’t move.

‘Lia…’ Closer this time.

No. It wasn’t my mother. It wasn’t anyone I recognized. The voice was coming from…inside me.

‘Wake up.’

A sharp pain exploded through my chest as air rushed violently into my lungs.

I gasped.

Agony tore through every inch of my body. Broken ribs. Bruised lungs. Burning cuts.

My heartbeat stuttered wildly.

I wasn’t dead…

I was dying.

My eyes flew open.

Nothing had changed in my surroundings. Darkness still surrounded me. Dust filled the air, making every breath I made feel like swallowing sand. I tried to move, but something heavy was pressed against my legs.

Collapsed beams. Stones. The packhouse.

Memories crashed into me all at once. The festival. The explosion, and…

Cassian.

“Ca…” Only a rasp escaped my throat. No one answered. Dread surged through me but I forced myself to stay calm. One breath. Then another.

My fingers clawed at the dirt beside me, searching for anything I could use to free myself, but there was nothing. I was trapped.

Panic tightened around my chest.

“No…” I shoved against the timber pinning me down. It didn’t move. I did it again.

Nothing.

Again.

The beam remained where it was. Tears blurred my vision after realizing how helpless I was.

“Help…” My voice barely carried beyond my own ears. I waited for the impossibility that someone might have heard me but…there was no footsteps. No voices.

Only silence.

They couldn’t hear me…or there was no one left to hear.

A sob caught in my throat.

This couldn’t be how it ended. Not here. Not alone and definitely not before becoming Luna.

The darkness pressed closer as my breathing slowed. Every inhale hurt more than the last. Cold spread through my fingertips and my eyelids grew heavier.

Maybe… maybe it would be easier to stop fighting. To let go.

‘Lia.’ The voice returned but it was much clearer now. Stronger. Like it knows what was on my mind. ‘Don’t.’

My eyes widened.

“W-Who’s there?” Silence. I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me. That I was hallucinating but then–

‘You cannot sleep.’

Fear crawled beneath my skin but I forced myself to say, “Show yourself.”

A soft laugh echoed around me. ‘I can’t.’

“Why?”

‘Because you haven’t met me yet.’

Confusion replaced the fear I was feeling.

“What… are you talking about?”

‘You’ve waited eighteen years for me.’ Was all it said like it knew I would understand right away.

Eighteen years…The words struck something deep inside me.

Impossible. No. It couldn’t be.

Every werewolf awakened with their wolf long before adulthood and I never had. In fact, I had accepted it. I grieved it. I learned to live without it.

“You…” My voice trembled. “…are my wolf?” I was yet again met with silence.

Then, quietly—‘Yes.’

My heart stopped. “No.” No…

‘I know. I understand.’

“No…” Tears spilled freely down my face. “This isn’t real.” Is this the side effect of dying?

‘It has to be.’

“I don’t have a wolf.”

‘You do.’

I shook my head despite the pain. “They all said—”

‘They were wrong.’ The words were gentle. Not angry. Not defensive either. Just simply true.

“Then…” My voice broke.“…where have you been?” Four simply words, yet, they carry every single insecurities I’ve carried all throughout my life.

For the first time the voice sounded tired. As if it could feel the pain and the longing I had been feeling all these years.

‘Waiting.’

“Waiting for what?” It was me who had been waiting all this time. Every second and every minute of every day.

‘For you to need me.’

I almost flinch. “I’ve always needed you.”

‘I know.’

My brows furrowed. “Then why didn’t you come?” Why now? Not when people whispered as if I couldn’t hear them. Not when I was questioned if I was fit to become Luna. Not then, so why now?

A long silence answered me. When the voice finally spoke again, it was barely a whisper.

‘I couldn’t.’

Something in those words made my chest ache. Not because I understood them but because I didn’t.

I couldn’t understand why I was meeting her now. Now that I was already slipping away from the life I could have lived. It was too late.

Before I could ask another question, a violent crack echoed through the rubble above. Stone shifted. Dust rained from the ceiling and the beam across my legs groaned under the growing weight.

The entire structure was collapsing. Again.

‘We’re running out of time,’ the voice said.

“I can’t move.” My lips quivered. It was too late…

‘You can.’

“No, I—” I can’t.

‘You can. Just trust me.’

And suddenly, pain spread through my body like wildfire. It started in my chest, then it went to my spine. Then to every bone I possessed.

I screamed.

The sound echoed through the darkness as something inside me awakened. Not gently. Not peacefully.

It clawed its way to the surface.

Every muscle in my body tightened and every heartbeat thundered louder than the last. It felt as though another soul had suddenly begun breathing inside me.

Silver light flickered beneath my skin.

The air trembled. The scent of rain and moonflowers filled the tiny space around me.

‘Lia.’ The voice no longer sounded distant. It sounded beside me. With me. ‘As long as I breathe…’ The pain became unbearable. ‘…you will not die.’

A howl erupted from somewhere deep within me. It wasn’t from my lips. It was from my soul.

The beam above me splintered as stones cracked. For one impossible moment, the rubble lifted just enough. Just enough for a sliver of moonlight to break through the darkness.

I reached toward it with trembling fingers and then…

Everything went black once more.