Chapter 5
871 Words
Nobody reacted to what I said.
Not Kael.
Not Lucien.
Not Ronan.
Not even the man with wings standing twenty feet away in the rain.
Because apparently, I had just done something impossible.
Again.
My knees hit the pavement hard.
The pain barely registered.
I couldn't breathe.
Not because of fear.
Not because of the visions.
Because the second I'd looked at him—really looked at him—something inside me had shattered.
Asher.
I knew his name.
I knew the sound of his voice.
I knew the way he held himself, like a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
And I knew, with horrifying certainty, that I had once loved him.
The thought hit me so hard I nearly threw up.
"No," I whispered.
Asher took a step toward me.
I flinched.
He stopped.
The pain on his face was worse than if he'd kept walking.
"Aria."
My name.
He said my name like a prayer.
Like a wound.
Like he'd spent a lifetime saying it to someone who wasn't there.
"Don't," I said.
My voice cracked.
"Please don't look at me like that."
His jaw tightened.
"How am I looking at you?"
"Like you know me."
The rain drummed around us.
He didn't answer.
Because he did.
Of course he did.
They all did.
And somehow, I was the only person standing in this alley who had no idea who I was.
My hands started shaking.
"I need this to stop."
No one moved.
"I need someone to explain what the hell is happening."
Kael spoke first.
"Not here."
I laughed.
Actually laughed.
It came out sounding half-hysterical.
"Not here? Really? That's the issue? Not the monsters? Not the glowing eyes? Not the fact that Birdman over there apparently knew me before I was born?"
Ronan snorted.
"Birdman?"
Asher didn't even blink.
"I've been called worse."
I stared at him.
He was serious.
Of course he was.
Something in me broke.
Not in a supernatural way.
Not with visions or voices.
In the very normal human way people break when reality becomes too much.
I started laughing.
Then I started crying.
I hated that.
More than the monsters.
More than the visions.
More than the fact that I apparently had four gorgeous psychopaths following me around.
I hated crying.
I wrapped my arms around myself and looked at the ground.
"I killed someone tonight."
The words came out small.
Human.
Real.
Nobody answered.
"She was a person."
Ronan opened his mouth.
Kael shot him a look sharp enough to draw blood.
Good.
Because I didn't want to hear that Natasha Volkov had secretly been a demon or a monster or whatever other insane explanation they had.
I wanted someone to tell me that I hadn't murdered someone.
Instead, Lucien knelt in front of me.
I hadn't seen him move.
One second he was standing.
The next he was there.
Close enough for me to see the sadness in his eyes.
"Aria," he said quietly.
I hated how gentle he sounded.
"She wasn't human."
I closed my eyes.
"That's not possible."
"Neither are you."
The words landed softly.
And somehow that made them hurt more.
I opened my eyes.
"What am I?"
Nobody answered.
Not immediately.
The rain filled the silence.
Then Asher spoke.
"You're the Queen of Midnight."
The title again.
I was starting to hate it.
"What does that even mean?"
The four men exchanged looks.
Not long.
Not dramatic.
Just long enough to terrify me.
Finally, Kael answered.
"It means that before humans built cities..." he said quietly, "before our worlds were separated..."
He stopped.
His golden eyes locked onto mine.
"There was one ruler."
The whispers came back.
Faint.
Distant.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
I pressed my hands against my ears.
"No."
"There was one queen," he continued.
"No."
"She united every supernatural race."
"No!"
"Until she died."
The world shifted.
Not physically.
Inside me.
A memory.
Not mine.
But mine.
A throne of black stone.
A crown heavier than mountains.
Four men kneeling before me.
A wolf.
A vampire.
An angel.
A demon.
And me.
Laughing.
Not because I was happy.
Because I knew I was about to die.
The vision hit me so hard I screamed.
The alley disappeared.
The city disappeared.
Everything disappeared.
And suddenly, I wasn't Aria Nocturne anymore.
I was standing on a battlefield beneath a black moon.
Thousands of bodies surrounded me.
The sky was on fire.
And four men were screaming my name.
Not Aria.
Another name.
A name I had never heard before.
A name that felt like home.
"My Queen!" the angel cried.
"Please!"
The wolf was bleeding.
The vampire was on his knees.
The demon looked terrified.
And I—
I turned.
Because someone was standing behind me.
A shadow.
A shape made of darkness and stars.
A voice whispered into my ear.
The same voice I'd heard in the alley.
The same voice that lived inside me.
Wake up.
I opened my eyes.
I was back in the alley.
On my knees.
Gasping.
The four men surrounded me.
Terrified.
And I knew one thing with absolute certainty.
Someone else had been inside that memory.
And they had wanted me to remember.
- Writer
