Aria’s POV
For a second after the words left my mouth, nothing moved. The air itself seemed to stop.
It was like the world forgot how to breathe with me.
Damien didn’t speak. Didn’t blink. He just stood there, rigid, one hand still half-curled at his side, the faint tremor in his knuckles the only proof he was alive. His eyes locked on mine, and for a heartbeat, I wished he would just yell. Yelling, I could survive. This silence? I couldn’t.
The air between us was too thin. My chest ached with the weight of it.
“I killed someone.”
The words echoed again in my head, low and final, like a stone sinking underwater.
He exhaled slowly through his nose, jaw tightening as if he was grinding back every word that wanted to come out.
“Who?”
It wasn’t anger. It wasn’t disbelief. Just a quest
