Chapter 8
905 Words
The black blade hummed.
Not with sound.
With recognition.
The instant I looked at it, my pulse stumbled.
A flash of memory slammed into me.
Steel.
Fire.
A moon eclipsed by darkness.
That same blade piercing straight through my chest.
I gasped and staggered backward.
"No..." I whispered.
The masked man tilted his head.
"So you remember."
"I don't know you."
His laugh was cold.
"You did."
Kael's growl vibrated through the alley.
"You should have stayed buried, Malachar."
The name hit the stranger like an old title.
He spread his arms.
"I tried."
The smile beneath the silver mask widened.
"But death is terribly inconvenient when your queen refuses to stay dead."
Aria.
Focus.
I forced myself to breathe.
My vision blurred as another wave of memories threatened to pull me under.
Not now.
Please... not now.
Malachar pointed the black sword toward me.
"I watched kingdoms burn for you."
His voice was calm.
"I watched empires crumble because four fools loved you more than they feared you."
Kael lunged.
Ronan caught his arm.
"No!"
Kael's golden eyes blazed.
"He dies tonight."
"He wants that," Lucien said quietly.
Everyone froze.
Malachar chuckled.
"The vampire is still the clever one."
His gaze found mine again.
"I didn't come to kill you."
Every instinct I had screamed that he was lying.
"I came to remind you."
The sword touched the wet pavement.
Darkness spread across the concrete like spilled ink.
It raced toward me.
Asher moved first.
His white wings exploded outward, creating a barrier of brilliant light.
The darkness struck them.
Light and shadow collided with a deafening crack.
The force threw everyone backward.
I slammed into the side of a parked car.
The windshield shattered.
Pain shot through my shoulder.
Before I could stand, Malachar was suddenly in front of me.
Impossible.
One second he had been thirty feet away.
The next, he was kneeling in front of me.
His gloved hand reached toward my face.
"I've missed those eyes."
I slapped his hand away.
"Don't touch me."
His blue eyes narrowed.
"There she is."
Confusion washed over me.
"What?"
"The woman who never bowed."
He sounded...
Proud.
Almost relieved.
I hated it.
"I have no idea who you think I am."
"Oh, Aria."
He spoke my name with surprising gentleness.
"You still think she's someone else."
His hand pressed against the center of my chest.
A burst of icy pain ripped through me.
My scream echoed across the city.
The world vanished.
I stood in a throne room beneath a sky with no stars.
The Queen stood before me.
She wasn't smiling this time.
She looked... tired.
Ancient.
Lonely.
"You let him in," she said.
"I didn't!"
"You did."
She walked toward me.
Every step echoed through eternity.
"Malachar doesn't break doors."
She stopped inches away.
"He waits until someone opens them."
"I don't understand!"
"I know."
For the first time, her expression softened.
"You deserve to know the truth."
Hope flickered inside me.
Finally.
She was going to tell me.
"I am not your past life."
I blinked.
"What?"
"I'm not your reincarnation."
Everything I'd believed over the last few hours collapsed.
"What are you talking about?"
She placed a hand over my heart.
"You were born, Aria Nocturne."
My breath caught.
"You have your own memories."
Her hand glowed with silver light.
"Your own dreams."
The light spread through my chest.
"Your own soul."
"Then..."
My voice shook.
"Who are you?"
She smiled sadly.
"I am the last piece of a queen who refused to disappear."
The room trembled.
"I have been sleeping inside your blood since the night I died."
The words hit me harder than any punch.
"So you're..."
"A fragment."
Not a ghost.
Not another personality.
Not someone trying to steal my life.
A piece.
A broken piece.
She cupped my face.
"I cannot become whole unless you surrender."
I searched her eyes.
"And if I don't?"
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
"Then I fade forever."
Silence filled the throne room.
"You would die?"
She nodded.
"I already did."
The room cracked like glass.
Her expression changed instantly.
Fear.
Real fear.
"They've found us."
The throne room began collapsing.
Stone walls shattered into darkness.
She shoved me backward.
"Wake up!"
My eyes flew open.
I was back in the alley.
Kael was holding me upright.
Lucien's hands glowed crimson as he tried to stop the blood running from my nose.
Asher knelt beside me, his wings wrapped around us like a shield.
Ronan stood over Malachar, twin black daggers drawn.
But Malachar wasn't looking at any of them.
He was looking at me.
And when our eyes met, his confident smile disappeared.
For the first time...
He looked afraid.
"You spoke to her," he whispered.
I slowly stood, wiping the blood from my face.
My head throbbed.
But my mind was clear.
Clearer than it had been all night.
I met his gaze.
"I know one thing now."
Malachar didn't move.
"I'm not the Queen."
His shoulders relaxed.
For a heartbeat, he looked relieved.
Then I finished.
"But she's part of me."
The relief vanished.
A pulse of silver-black energy erupted from my body, racing through the alley in every direction.
Miles away, every supernatural creature in the city stopped what they were doing.
They all felt it.
The Queen hadn't returned.
She had found her vessel.
And the war for Aria Nocturne had officially begun.
- Writer
