All Chapters of Rosie's Bloom: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Aria POVThe palace felt wrong.Too quiet. Too heavy. Like everyone was holding a breath they weren’t allowed to release.I walked through the hallways with that same pressure sitting under my ribs a tight, coiled feeling that wasn’t fear, wasn’t pain, but… direction.My silver hummed under my skin in a steady rhythm.Not random. Not instinctual.It was leading me.Toward the left corridors. Toward the windowed archways. Toward the horizon where the ocean glimmered like a blade under the sun.I stopped at the third archway, hands gripping the stone.The sea was so far away it should’ve looked harmless.It didn’t.My pulse stuttered. “What’s happening to me?”The silver threads in my arms flickered first bright, then dim, then bright again like they couldn’t decide whether they wanted to hide or ignite. A sharp tug went through my sternum.Not the bond.Something deeper.Something… ancient.Ares hadn’t left his room. Not because he didn’t want to see me because his power was too u

Aria POVI had never been afraid of my own heartbeat before.But now?Now it felt like every thud echoed inside the earth like the world itself was answering me.The tremor faded, but something lingered in the silence afterward.A pressure.A presence.And the terrifying realization that it wasn’t reaching for all of us equally.It was reaching for me.My hands shook. Not from exhaustion. Not from Clara’s training.But from the pull beneath my feet.a thread hooked into my ribsand tugging, tugging, tugging.“Ares,” I whispered without looking at him, “do you feel it?”He didn’t answer immediately.The bond thrummed once low, hesitant then sharpened, like something inside him suddenly clawed toward me.“I feel you,” he said finally, voice rough. “Like you’re slipping out of reach.”I pressed a fist to my sternum. “I feel… something else.”Clara shifted, tension snapping through her posture.Not fear.Recognition.“Describe it,” she ordered.I tried.“It’s like…” I swallowed, breath t

Aria POVConsciousness returned slowly.Not with a gasp. Not with panic. But with pressure.Thick. Heavy. A weight pressing into my chest, like someone was lying on top of my ribs whispering into them.Silver one. Come back to me.I jolted awake.Ares’ arms locked around me immediately, pulling me closer, grounding me before I could be pulled apart again.“Easy,” he murmured, voice raw. “I’ve got you.”My fingers curled into his shirt without permission. His heartbeat thundered under my cheek too fast, too fierce. Fueled by panic. Fueled by the gold.Clara’s voice was softer. Tighter. “Aria? Can you hear me?”I forced my eyes open.The corridor was scorched literally. The walls still flickered with the aftershock of gold-light. The sigil under us was cracked like broken ice. And Clara… Clara was pale.Too pale.Her storm-mark glowed faintly. Exhausted. Frightened. But trying not to show it.“I’m… I’m here,” I whispered.Ares pulled me tighter. “She tried to take you.”“No,” Cla

Aria POVThe sanctuary felt alive.Not in the way forests breathe or oceans move but in the way a heartbeat echoes through ribs.Slow.Steady.Ancient.The air hummed around us, the sigils on the floor pulsing in soft silver-gold light. For the first time since the goddess’s voice crashed into my mind, I didn’t feel like I was being yanked forward by invisible hands.But I did feel something else.Something worse.She was learning the shape of this place.The rift outside screamed again a soundless vibration, scraping down the stone walls like claws trying to find an entrance.Ares stood in front of me, every line in his body hard and ready. Clara stood beside him, storm coiling in her palms.I sat on the cold stone, trying to breathe.My lungs didn’t want to cooperate.“Ares,” I whispered, “I can’t… I can’t feel her anymore.”He snapped his head toward me. “Good.”“No,” I choked. “It’s not good. She’s not calling me she’s listening.”Clara turned sharply. “Explain.”I pressed a han

Aria POVThe ground didn’t crack open.It softened.Like the stone beneath us turned to warm ash, collapsing under our weight, dragging our bodies downward inch by inch.Ares roared, digging his heels into the floor, pulling me against his chest as if he could physically anchor me to reality.Clara’s storm flared wildly, sparks snapping off her skin as she fought the pull with everything she had.“It’s the core!” she shouted over the rising hum. “She’s trying to drag us into her chamber don’t let it touch your skin!”Ares’ grip tightened painfully around my waist.He was trembling not from fear, but from the gold inside him fighting two forces at once:the goddess pulling from aboveandthe core pulling from belowMy ribs hurt from how hard I clung to him, nails digging into his shirt.But the pull kept getting stronger.The silver responded.My whole body lit from the inside, radiating outward in a slow, steady glow.“Aria Aria, stay with me,” Ares begged, voice cracking, forehead