Chapter 75 : The Weight of What Was Sealed
Aria could no longer tell where the pain ended, and the power began.
It threaded through her as silver wire pulled too tight, humming beneath her skin, vibrating in her bones. Every breath felt borrowed. Every heartbeat carried a price.
She lay curled on the cold stone floor of the Hollow of Thorns, arms wrapped around herself as if that might hold her together.
It didn’t.
The seal burned — not sharply, but steadily, like a slow brand pressed into her soul.
Lucien crouched nearby, watching with an intensity that bordered on fear.
“This shouldn’t be happening this fast,” he muttered.
Aria laughed weakly. “You keep saying that.”
Lucien shot her a look. “Because it’s true.”
She tried to push herself upright. The moment her palms touched stone, agony ripped through her chest, white-hot and blinding. She screamed as silver light burst from beneath her skin, veins lighting like fractures in glass.
Lucien was at her side instantly, gripping her shoulders.
“Aria,” he snapped. “Stop fighting it.”
“I’m not!” she cried. “I’m holding it—”
“No,” he said harshly. “You’re suffocating it.”
The words hit her harder than the pain.
She sagged back, trembling violently as the light dimmed to a faint glow. Sweat soaked her hair, her throat raw from screaming.
Lucien exhaled slowly, pressing his forehead briefly to her shoulder before pulling back. “You’re paying the cost meant for the blood moon itself.”
Her voice was hoarse. “Then why am I still alive?”
Lucien didn’t answer.
Because the answer frightened him.
Instead, he stood and paced, running a hand through his hair. “The seal was designed to be temporary. A pause. A lie told to the world.”
Aria swallowed. “And now?”
“And now,” Lucien said quietly, “your body is rewriting it.”
She stared at him. “That’s not possible.”
“It is when you’re not just carrying power,” he replied. “You are the lineage.”
Something stirred at the edge of her mind — a memory not hers, silver forests bending beneath moonlight, wolves bowing not in fear, but in reverence.
Aria gasped, clutching her head.
“No,” she whispered. “Not yet.”
Lucien knelt in front of her. “You saw it.”
“I felt it,” she corrected. “They were kneeling.”
Lucien’s jaw tightened. “That’s what scares them.”
The seal pulsed again — slower this time, deeper.
And through it—
Kael.
Aria’s breath caught as the bond flared painfully, gold threading through silver, pulling at her with desperate insistence. She pressed a hand to her chest, tears burning her eyes.
“He’s hurting,” she whispered.
Lucien closed his eyes briefly. “Yes.”
“You said this place would hide me.”
“It hides you from them,” Lucien replied. “Not from him.”
She laughed bitterly. “Lucky me.”
Before Lucien could respond, the wards around the Hollow shuddered.
Not violently.
Carefully.
Lucien went still.
“Get up,” he said sharply.
Aria struggled to her feet, legs shaking. “What is it?”
“Someone just touched the boundary,” Lucien replied. “And they didn’t trigger the alarms.”
Fear curled cold in her stomach. “That’s not possible.”
Lucien’s expression darkened. “It is if they know how the wards were written.”
A shadow moved beyond the archway — slow, deliberate.
Lucien stepped in front of Aria instinctively.
The figure emerged into the moonlight.
Cassian.
His presence hit the Hollow like a blade sliding free of its sheath.
Tall. Armoured. Expression carved from regret and resolve alike.
Aria stared at him, breath hitching. “Cassian…?”
His gaze flicked to her — just for a heartbeat — and something like pain crossed his face.
Then it was gone.
“Lucien Vale,” Cassian said evenly. “You’ve caused enough disruption.”
Lucien’s lips curved into a sharp smile. “Funny. I was about to say the same thing.”
Aria stepped forward despite Lucien’s warning hand. “You know me.”
Cassian’s jaw tightened. “I do.”
“Then help me,” she said. “Please.”
Silence stretched.
When Cassian spoke, his voice was low. “I was ordered to observe. Not interfere.”
Lucien laughed softly. “And yet here you are.”
Cassian’s eyes hardened. “Because this is accelerating.”
The seal flared violently at his words, silver light ripping through Aria’s veins. She cried out, collapsing to her knees as the Hollow trembled in response.
Cassian swore under his breath, moving instantly to catch her before she hit the ground.
The moment his hands touched her—
The mark on Aria’s wrist burned.
And so did the scar along Cassian’s forearm.
He froze.
Lucien sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh… that’s new.”
Cassian stared down at the glowing mark on his arm, horror flooding his expression.
“What did you do to me?” he demanded.
Aria shook her head weakly. “Nothing. I swear.”
Lucien’s voice was grim. “You were already bound.”
Cassian looked between them. “Bound how?”
Lucien met his gaze. “By the order you followed twenty years ago.”
The words struck like a blow.
Cassian released Aria as if burned, staggering back. “No,” he whispered. “That child died.”
Aria lifted her head, silver light burning in her eyes. “I didn’t.”
The Hollow went deathly still.
Far away, Kael Draven gasped as the bond surged violently — sharp, unmistakable.
Aria was no longer hidden.
She had been found.