Chapter 5
1260 Words
Aria Draven
Darkness wasn’t empty.
It moved. It breathed. It whispered.
Something cold brushed against my mind, dragging me toward consciousness. My body felt heavy, like I was sinking through water. Every sound came muffled—the rush of blood in my ears, the low thrum of power humming beneath my skin. When I opened my eyes, the world was hazy and wrong. The corridor was gone. The walls had melted into shadow.
Moonlight leaked through cracks above me, thin as blades. The air was sharp, laced with silver. For a moment, I didn’t remember where I was, then it all came back in flashes. The attack. The shadows. Cassian’s hands catching me before I fell. His voice, low and rough, saying my name as if it meant something.
And then. Nothing.
“Cassian?” My voice sounded strange, too soft in the silence. I pushed myself up, my palms pressing against cold stone. The floor was cracked, the scent of smoke lingering in the air.
No answer. No footsteps. No trace of him.
Only the faint echo of my own breathing.
Something burned along my shoulder. I touched the spot where the shadow creature’s claws had dug into me. My fingers came away streaked with silver. Not blood. Light. It shimmered faintly against my skin before sinking back into it, disappearing beneath the surface like it had been absorbed.
A chill rippled through me. Then heat. Then both.
I stood slowly, unsteady. The whole corridor looked… different. The walls pulsed with a faint rhythm, like veins beneath flesh. The torches were gone, replaced by a dim, throbbing glow that came from nowhere and everywhere at once.
This wasn’t Nightbourne. At least, not the one I knew.
I called again, louder this time. “Cassian!”
The sound twisted as it left my throat, echoing back distorted. His name stretched, warped, as if something else was speaking with me. I stumbled back, my pulse hammering.
Then I heard it. The whisper.
Soft, familiar, impossibly close.
Come home.
It was the same voice that had spoken before the light swallowed us. Female. Ancient. Almost… gentle.
“I don’t know where home is,” I whispered back before I could stop myself. My voice cracked on the word. “I never did.”
A breeze swept through the hall, carrying the faint scent of pine and smoke. For a heartbeat, I swore I could smell him. Cassian. His scent had always felt dangerous, edged with wildness and control, like a storm caged too long. But now it was faint, fading. Like he’d been here only seconds ago.
I followed it. My boots crunched on shattered stone as I moved down the corridor, one hand brushing the wall for balance. The moonlight above seemed to follow me, shifting whenever I turned. I didn’t know if I was dreaming, dying, or trapped in something worse.
When I reached the end of the hall, I saw it. A single mark scorched into the floor. A crescent crossed with jagged lines.
The same symbol that had burned through the shadow’s chest. The same one Cassian had recognized.
Only now, it glowed. And it was pulsing in time with my heartbeat.
My chest tightened. I crouched beside it, feeling the pull. The air thickened, swirling around me like smoke. The whisper came again, softer this time, curling around my thoughts.
The blood remembers. The bond awakens.
A shiver crawled up my spine. I didn’t know what it meant, but part of me did. Somewhere deep down, something inside me stirred, like a locked door slowly opening. The edges of my vision blurred. Silver light flared beneath my skin again, tracing faint lines across my arms, my neck, my collarbone. They glowed, then dimmed, then glowed again.
My heart pounded faster. “What’s happening to me?”
The answer came in a rush of heat.
My knees hit the floor as pain ripped through my body. It wasn’t human pain. It was deeper, older, raw. My bones felt like they were burning from the inside out. My hands shook as the veins beneath my skin darkened, shimmering faintly with silver light. I gasped, choking on air that suddenly felt too heavy to breathe.
Then, footsteps.
Faint. Rapid. Hesitant.
I turned sharply, expecting Cassian. Hoping.
But it wasn’t him.
It was Luca.
He stopped a few feet away, his golden eyes glinting in the half-light. The smirk he’d worn earlier was gone. His expression was careful now, almost curious.
“You’re still alive,” he said softly. “Impressive.”
I tried to stand, but the pain made me falter. “Where is he?”
“Cassian?” His tone darkened. “Gone. He left before the ground even stopped shaking.”
The words cut deeper than I wanted them to. “You’re lying.”
“I don’t need to.” Luca’s gaze dropped to my hands. “You should look at yourself, Aria. You’re changing.”
I glanced down. The light beneath my skin had brightened again, pulsing violently with every breath. It moved like something alive, like it wanted out.
“What did he do to me?” I whispered.
Luca tilted his head, studying me. “Maybe the better question is what you did to him.”
I froze. “What are you talking about?”
“Cassian Vale doesn’t lose control,” Luca said, stepping closer. “Not for anyone. Not for anything. But tonight, I saw it. The way he looked at you, the way the power around him broke when you screamed his name. You did something to him.”
I shook my head. “No, I…”
“Don’t deny it.” His voice hardened. “The moment he touched you, the mark on the floor appeared. The same mark tied to the old Moonshade curse. You’re not human, Aria. You’re the reason those things came back.”
His words spun in my head, too fast, too sharp. “That’s not possible.”
“Isn’t it?” he murmured, his hand brushing a strand of hair from my face. “Look at you. The glow in your veins. The power in the air. The Syndicate would kill for a weapon like that.”
I slapped his hand away. “I’m not a weapon.”
For a moment, his eyes softened. “Then find a way to prove it, before someone else decides to use you as one.”
A low rumble echoed from somewhere deep beneath the floor. Luca glanced back, the faintest flicker of unease crossing his features. “Whatever that thing was earlier, it’s not gone. It’s following your scent now.”
He turned, already walking away. “You want to survive? Find Cassian. He’s the only one who knows what you are.”
His words hung in the air as he disappeared into the dark.
I stood there shaking, torn between fury and fear, every nerve screaming. My body still hummed with strange energy. The corridor felt alive, pulsing with something ancient. The whisper in my head came one last time, softer, almost tender.
Find him before the moon takes you.
I pressed a trembling hand to my heart. The glow beneath my skin was fading, but the ache it left behind wasn’t. Cassian was gone. But somehow, I could still feel him. A thread of heat tugging deep in my chest, pulling me toward the unknown.
And I knew, without understanding how, that wherever he was, he was fighting something far darker than either of us had imagined.
- Writer
