Aria's POV
Darkness swallowed everything.
Not the soft kind of darkness that settled in rooms at night.
This one had teeth—sharp, cold, biting into my spine.
Footsteps shifted somewhere in front of me.
I wasn’t unconscious, not fully. The world was dim but present, like something held me at the edges of wakefulness.
A voice—low, rough, unfamiliar—echoed in the darkness.
“She’s lighter than I expected.”
My heart stopped.
I wasn’t dreaming.
I wasn’t imagining.
Someone was here.
I forced my eyes open, blinking against the blur. A shape came into focus—a tall man standing near the doorway. Broad shoulders. Dark clothing. A face half-hidden beneath a shadowed hood.
Not Damian.
Not security.
Someone else.
Someone wrong.
My breath hitched.
The man turned slightly, studying me th
