All Chapters of Rosie's Bloom: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Aria POVThe vessel’s steps echoed like soft thunder.One… Two… Three…Each one heavier, not in sound but in meaning. Like every footfall rewrote the air around us.My silver reacted before I could think rippling through my veins, blooming from my palms in a soft halo that cast shadows against Ares’s gold.Clara’s storm crackled beside me, wild and restless.I swallowed hard. “Ares… she’s not threatening us.”“She doesn’t need to,” he growled. “She’s a threat by existing.”But I wasn’t afraid.That terrified me more than anything.The vessel stopped directly in front of me.Not Clara. Not Ares.Me.Its eyesswirling silver threaded with storm-blue and flecks of goldfelt like mirrors reflecting what I could become, not what I was now.A gentle resonance filled the chamber:Mercy. Half-heart. Come.My breath hitched. “She’s calling me.”Ares grabbed my wrist instantly. “Then you’re not answering.”Clara stepped closer, storm flickering with something too complicated to name. “Ari

Aria POVThe mountain didn’t just shake.It breathed.A long, low exhale rolled through the stone like some ancient thing was stretching after centuries of sleep. Dust cascaded from the ceiling in slow motion, drifting through the dim corridor like falling stars.Ares pulled me tight against his chest.Clara spun toward the darkness behind us, storm flaring wildly.“That’s not the core,” she said again, voice low and hollow. “The core sleeps above. This ”She pressed a hand to the wall, eyes widening.“ this is coming from below.”Ares glared at the stone as if he could intimidate it. “Great. So she wakes underground now.”“She’s not awake,” Clara whispered. “She’s reacting.”“To what?” I asked.The air answered for her.boom.A pulse.Deep.Ancient.Predictive.My knees buckled. Ares caught me instantly, his hands biting into my waist.“Aria hey look at me.”But I couldn’t.The pulse wasn’t just sound.It rippled through my body, sliding under my skin like cold silver ink.“She k

Aria POVAres’s scream tore through the cavern raw, guttural, ripped straight from somewhere deep in his bones. I felt it like a physical blow, like silver cracking down my spine.“No no ” I ran toward him instinctively.Clara snagged my arm, eyes blazing. “Aria, wait!”But it was too late.I saw it saw his gold bleeding into the vessel’s silver-laced skin like molten metal sinking into water. It wasn’t draining him. It wasn’t stealing him.It was copying him.Ares’s gold was becoming the vessel’s gold.“Ares!” I slid to my knees beside him, grabbing his shoulders. His skin felt fever-hot, like lightning without air to breathe. “Look at me please look at me ”He couldn’t.His eyes were wide open but unfocused, the gold bleeding out of them in threads of shimmering light pulled toward the vessel’s chest.Clara’s storm flared behind me. “It’s taking his identity his core like it did with us ”“And it won’t stop,” I whispered.The vessel’s grip tightened on Ares’s forearm. No

Aria POVThe cavern walls cracked like they were made of glass instead of stone.Lightning bled from Clara.Silver surged out of me like a living tide.Ares roared as the vessel used him like a conduit a bridge holding him in place with gold threads I couldn’t see, but felt sinking into my bones.The merge wasn’t beginning.It was being forced.“No no stop!” I screamed, grabbing Clara before the lightning could fully swallow her. Her violet storm lashed across my arms but didn’t burn me it recognized me. It wanted me.That terrified me more than the vessel did.Clara’s eyes glowed too bright, too wild. “Aria I can’t It’s pulling ”“I know,” I whispered, pulling her closer. “But don’t let it.”Her storm snapped again, trying to twist toward my chest.My silver flared defensively in response.We were being turned into magnets.Opposites.Complements.Pieces.My pulse stuttered with dread.If our powers touched fully in this state…I didn’t know if we’d ever separate again.Behind

Aria POVThe vessel didn’t roar. It didn’t glitch. It didn’t hesitate.It simply moved one silver blur slicing across the cavern floor with terrifying precision.Ares shoved me backward at the same moment Clara unleashed a horizontal lash of storm-lightning that cracked the air like a whip. The vessel twisted around the attack, its shape flickering into three overlapping silhouettes before reforming.It wasn’t reacting to us anymore.It was predicting us.Clara cursed and fired again, but the vessel dodged before she even moved, like it had already run the simulation of her attack a thousand times.Ares lunged forward gold blazing, claws forming. “Stay behind me!”“I’m not hiding!” I snapped, but he was already swinging, his attacks sharper, angrier than before. The vessel ducked under his arm, planted a palm to his ribs, and sent a pulse of silver energy rippling through his entire body.Ares hit the ground hard.“Ares!” I ran toward himThe vessel appeared in front of me.No war