Aria's POV
The quiet hum of the night surrounded us, a stark contrast to the chaos that had consumed our lives lately. Standing alone in the moonlit room with Damon felt like a moment stolen from another life—a calmer one, where we weren’t fighting off death at every corner. For the first time in weeks, there was no one else. Just us. And the sheer weight of that realization made my chest tighten.
Damon’s eyes, dark and filled with something that sent a shiver down my spine, locked onto mine. He stepped closer, his movements slow and deliberate, like he had all the time in the world now. The corner of his mouth curled into that signature smirk of his, the one that made my stomach do somersaults no matter how much I tried to resist.
“You know,” he said, his voice low, almost teasing, “we
