The Breaking Point
1007 Words
Aria’s POV
The slap was heavier than I expected.
The sound of my palm meeting Noah’s cheek cracked through the silent hall like a gunshot. My hand stung, a sharp, buzzing heat radiating from my fingers, but it was nothing compared to the fire roaring in my chest.
I had walked into this house with an anger I couldn't explain, a dark, oily tide that had carried me all the way from that blood-soaked alley to these marble floors.
I had hit an Alpha. I had struck the man who held my life in his hands, and the regret hit me almost immediately.
"How dare you?" Cassian’s voice barked, slicing through the air.
Within a heartbeat, Four guards appeared surrounding me in a tight, suffocating circle. Their scent was aggressive, of musk and steel and their eyes were fixed on me like I was a rabid animal that needed to be put down.
"What did you do to me?" I screamed, my voice cracking with anger.
"What did the both of you do to me?"
I didn't just shout; the words felt like they were ripped from my lungs. As I yelled, I could have sworn the floorboards vibrated. A low rumble echoed throughout the estate.
Noah didn't move. He didn't even reach up to touch his face, though the skin where I’d struck him was already turning a little red. He stood in a state of absolute shock, his eyes locked onto mine. Then, slowly, the shock dissolved into a cold, hard mask of fury.
That was when the regret turned into genuine terror.
"We didn't do anything to you," Noah replied. His voice was so calm, so terrifyingly level, that for a split second, I almost believed him. He looked at me with such distaste like I was a problem that needed to be solved.
"Liar!" I screamed, the first sob breaking through my throat. Tears began to drizzle down my cheeks, hot and stinging against the dried blood on my skin.
"I can't remember anything! I woke up in the dark, covered in blood that isn't mine, and the last thing I remember... The last thing I knew was the two of you showing me off at that gala like I was some prize! Like I was a trophy you’d finally won!"
My breath came in shallow gasps. My mind was a fractured mirror, several pieces of memory cutting into me. "And then Maeve... Maeve came, but happened. Something broke."
I stepped toward Noah, ignoring the guards who blocked my movement. "What did you do to my cousin?" I yelled, my fists clenching at my sides. "Why did she behave like that? She’d never do anything to hurt me! She’d never say those things! You did something to her mind, didn't you? You poisoned her!"
I was becoming hysterical, the grief for the Maeve I knew and the horror of what I had become were colliding, tearing me apart.
Cassian moved faster than my eyes could follow. He grabbed my shoulders, his grip like iron, and shoved me back. I felt the breath leave my body as he pinned me against the cold stone of the wall. His face was inches from mine, his eyes glowing with a molten, golden light that promised violence.
"Listen to me," Cassian growled, his voice vibrating against my chest. "We are as confused as you are, Aria. We don't know what happened in that gap of time, and we sure as hell don't know what the f**k is wrong with your cousin. We’ve been looking for you everywhere, we thought you were dead or worse. So, if you could at least calm down so we can figure this out, I think it would be for the best."
His words were a bucket of ice water over my head. My body seemed to betray my rage, slumping against the wall under the weight of his command. The fight drained out of me, leaving nothing but a hollow, aching exhaustion.
Cassian let go, stepping back with a look of pure frustration. He signaled to the guards with a sharp nod.
"Take her up," he ordered, his voice weary. "Carefully."
The guards didn't touch me roughly, but their presence felt like a cage. They guided me toward the grand staircase, acting as a wall between me and the brothers. I felt stupid. Ashamed. The adrenaline had vanished, leaving me feeling small and broken in my shredded, blood-stained silk.
Halfway up the stairs, I paused and turned back. I wanted to see Noah. I wanted to see if there was a flicker of the man who had looked at me with tenderness only hours before.
But Noah didn't look up. He had turned his back to the stairs, deep in a low, heated conversation with Cassian. I couldn't hear the words, but the set of his shoulders told me everything I needed to know. He was pissed. Beyond pissed.
Still, a small, dark part of me, the part that remembered the copper smell of the alley, felt he deserved that slap. He had treated me like property, and property had finally bitten back.
I turned to continue up the stairs, my legs feeling like lead. As I reached the top landing, the hallway stretched out before me, filled with long, flickering shadows.
Out of the corner of my eye, just behind the heavy velvet curtains at the end of the hall, I saw a flash of movement. A silhouette. It wasn't a guard, probably a maid but I wasn't sure.
Someone was watching me.
I stared at the corner, my heart beginning to hammer against my ribs again. The shadow vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind a faint, lingering scent I couldn't quite place, something that smelled like vanilla and cold ash.
I wondered who that could be.
- Writer
