Chapter 18 — Fault Lines
Aria (POV)
I wake to silence.
Not the peaceful kind.
The heavy kind that sits on your chest and whispers that something isn’t right.
For a moment, I forget where I am. The unfamiliar ceiling. The faint city glow through floor-to-ceiling glass. Then memory rushes back in fragments—darkness, the lock rattling, Damian standing between me and danger.
I sit up slowly.
The other side of the bed is empty.
Of course it is.
Damian doesn’t sleep the way normal people do. I think he stays awake out of sheer will alone.
I swing my legs over the edge of the bed, my bare feet meeting cool marble. My heart skips at the realization that I slept in his room. Not by force. By choice.
Trust.
The word settles uneasily in my chest.
The door to the sitting area is ajar. I f
