*Aria*
The candle wick still looked accusing the next morning.
A tiny blackened nub ringed in cooled wax.
I caught myself staring at it while I braided my hair, fingers moving on autopilot.
One thought looped: *If I can snuff out a flame across the room without touching it… I can’t pretend I’m harmless anymore.*
Everyone else already knew that.
The witch.
Kade.
Lucian.
I was the last one catching up.
If I was going to stand between curses and alphas and witches who might be watching from every shadow, I needed more than snatches of rumor and random practice.
I needed the truth.
Not Kade’s version, twisted and amused.
Not the elders’ silence.
Lucian’s.
The past he kept locked behind his clenched jaw and pained eyes.
He’d given me pieces.
Enough to know there was a deal. A f
