Aria's POV
I held my breath and listened.
Nothing.
But the feeling didn't leave. It grew thicker, closer, until I could feel it pressing against my lungs, my ribs, my throat.
"Hello?" I called out, my voice steadier than I felt. "Is someone there?"
Silence.
Then a shift in the darkness. A shape emerging from the shadows. Familiar.
My foot slipped.
The step vanished beneath me, and I was falling, my hands grasping for the rail, for anything.
An arm caught me around the waist.
I hit a solid chest hard, my breath punching out of me. For one terrible, weightless moment, I thought I was still falling. Then the arm tightened, pulling me flush against him, and I smelled it: pine, leather, rain.
Damon.
He didn't move, just stood there, one arm locked around me, the other braced against
