(Aria POV)
The shadows parted like a black curtain… and Aunt Lucy stepped into the moonlight.
The herbalist.
The healer.
The woman who bandaged Aria’s wounds like she were her own child.
The one who held her when she cried after nightmares.
The one who whispered, “I will protect you as if you were my own.”
And now Aria understood the truth:
Lucy meant every word.
Just… in the worst possible way.
Aria felt her knees weaken.
“Aunt Lucy?” she whispered, voice breaking. “You…?”
Lucy smiled — soft, warm, heartbreakingly familiar. Aria held her head when several memories of her childhood started coming to her mind. It seemed like someone started stuffing her brain with memories so foreign, she was unable to recognize right from wrong.
“Have we met before? You have known me since t
