Chapter9:The Eclipse Circle
869 Words
“No…”
The word barely left Aria’s lips before Kael’s attention shifted sharply toward the restaurant entrance.
Something had changed.
The air itself felt heavier somehow.
Charged.
Kael stood immediately.
“We need to leave.”
Aria stared at him in disbelief.
“You still haven’t explained anything.”
“Aria.”
“No.” Her voice shook now, overwhelmed frustration mixing with fear. “You don’t get to say my family was hunted and expect me to blindly follow you.”
Kael’s jaw tightened.
Then his gaze flickered toward the silver locket glowing faintly beneath her shirt.
And for the first time since meeting him—
Aria saw genuine concern break through his carefully controlled expression.
“You’re awakening too fast.”
The sentence sent cold fear crawling down her spine.
“What does that even mean?”
Before Kael could answer—
Three people entered the restaurant quietly.
Two men.
One woman.
Elegant.
Calm.
Perfectly dressed.
Yet every instinct inside Aria screamed something was wrong.
The woman removed her gloves slowly, revealing dark silver markings winding around her fingers like ink beneath skin.
Kael’s expression hardened instantly.
“…Selene.”
The woman smiled faintly.
“Still protective, I see.”
Aria looked between them nervously.
“You know her?”
Selene ignored the question completely.
Instead, her silver-gray eyes settled directly onto Aria’s necklace.
And froze.
Silence stretched.
Then—
“Well,” Selene murmured softly.
“So the rumors were true.”
Kael stepped slightly in front of Aria.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“And you shouldn’t have hidden her from the Circle.”
Circle.
The word landed heavily.
Aria frowned.
“What circle?”
Neither of them answered immediately.
Which terrified her more.
Kael lowered his voice carefully.
“Leave now, Selene.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
The lights above them flickered once.
Then again.
Aria’s pulse spiked painfully.
The silver locket burned hot against her skin.
Not painfully.
Almost…reactively.
Like it sensed something.
Selene noticed too.
Her expression shifted instantly.
Shock flashed across her face before disappearing beneath composure.
“…Impossible.”
Kael noticed.
And suddenly looked alarmed.
“Don’t look at her,” he said sharply.
Selene’s eyes narrowed.
“You brought an unawakened heir into public without protection?”
“She wasn’t supposed to activate yet.”
Activate.
Aria’s breathing grew uneven.
“Stop talking about me like I’m not standing here.”
The restaurant around them continued normally.
People laughed.
Servers moved between tables.
Glasses clinked.
Nobody noticed the suffocating tension swallowing the corner of the room.
Which somehow made everything worse.
Aria stepped backward slowly.
“What is happening?”
Kael looked at her.
Really looked at her.
And she realized he was trying to decide how much truth she could survive hearing tonight.
That realization alone terrified her.
Selene folded her hands calmly.
“The Taylor bloodline disappeared twenty years ago.”
Aria’s stomach twisted.
“My family isn’t dead.”
“No,” Selene corrected softly.
“It was erased.”
The words hit harder than Aria expected.
Because deep down…
She already knew.
The missing documents.
The vanished accounts.
The sealed records.
The strange gaps in family history.
It had never felt natural.
Kael spoke before Selene could continue.
“The Eclipse Circle believed the Taylor line ended after the archive fire.”
Aria frowned.
“The Eclipse Circle?”
Selene finally smiled again.
“Old families,” she said simply.
“Old power. Hidden beneath modern empires.”
Aria looked at Kael slowly.
“The Verrano Group…”
Kael said nothing.
Which was answer enough.
Fear mixed dangerously with realization inside her chest.
This wasn’t just money.
This wasn’t just corruption.
Something much larger existed beneath the surface of the world she knew.
And somehow—
She belonged to it.
Suddenly the lights flickered violently.
The temperature inside the restaurant dropped several degrees.
A glass shattered somewhere behind them.
Aria flinched.
Kael’s expression changed instantly.
“Aria.”
She looked up at him shakily.
And realized the glow beneath her collar had become visible now.
Soft gold light pulsed beneath the silver locket.
Selene stared at it with open disbelief.
“No…” she whispered.
The air around Aria suddenly vibrated strangely.
Whispers echoed faintly inside her ears again.
Ancient.
Overlapping.
Distorted.
Images flashed across her vision.
A burning symbol.
A woman crying.
Dark water.
Hands covered in gold light.
Aria gasped sharply, grabbing the table for balance.
Kael reached her instantly.
“Look at me.”
The moment his hand touched her wrist—
The whispers quieted.
Not fully.
But enough.
Aria stared up at him, breathing unevenly.
“What’s happening to me?”
Kael hesitated.
That hesitation frightened her more than any answer could.
Then Selene spoke quietly behind them.
“The seal is breaking.”
Silence.
Kael closed his eyes briefly like the words confirmed his worst fear.
Aria’s heart pounded painfully.
“What seal?”
Kael looked at her again.
And this time—
There was no distance left in his expression.
Only truth.
“Your family didn’t just inherit wealth, Aria.”
His voice lowered carefully.
“They guarded something the Circle feared.”
- Writer
