The Sister She Lost
Aria's POV
Pain exploded behind my eyes like fireworks made of glass. I pressed my hands against my temples and doubled over, gasping as another memory ripped through my skull.
A girl with long brown hair and laughing eyes. Someone calling my name. The smell of birthday cake and vanilla candles.
"Aria!" Kael caught me as I stumbled, his strong arms keeping me from hitting the ground. "What's happening?"
"My head," I gasped, tears streaming down my face. "Something's trying to break through."
Luna stepped closer, her silver eyes sharp with interest. "The truth detector must have triggered something. Memory barriers breaking down."
Another wave of pain crashed over me, and with it came more fragments. A bedroom with two beds. Stuffed animals lined up on shelves. Someone braiding my hair while humming softly.
"There was someone," I whispered, my voice breaking. "Someone important. Someone I loved."
"Who?" Kael asked gently, helping me sit down on a fallen log.
"I don't know. I can't see her face clearly." I wiped tears from my cheeks with shaking hands. "But I remember feeling safe with her. Protected. Like nothing bad could ever happen as long as she was there."
Marcus made a disgusted sound. "More convenient amnesia. How touching."
"Shut up, Marcus," Luna snapped. Then she looked at Kael with an expression I couldn't read. "Tell her."
"Tell me what?" I looked between them, fear growing in my chest like a cold flower.
Kael was quiet for a long moment, his golden eyes filled with pain. "There's something I haven't told you about the night my family died. Something important."
"What?"
"Your father didn't just order the attack on my pack. He brought his whole family to watch. You, your mother, and..." He swallowed hard. "And your sister."
The word hit me like a lightning bolt. Sister. That's who I'd been remembering. The girl with the laughing eyes and gentle hands.
"Elena," I breathed, the name falling from my lips like a prayer.
"You remember her name?" Luna asked, leaning forward.
"Elena." Saying it again felt like coming home after a long, terrible journey. "She was my sister. My little sister."
More memories flooded back, each one bringing fresh tears. Elena teaching me to braid friendship bracelets. Elena crawling into my bed during thunderstorms. Elena asking me to read her favorite story over and over until I knew it by heart.
"She was two years younger than me," I whispered. "She loved butterflies and chocolate ice cream and terrible jokes that made me laugh anyway."
"Yes," Kael said softly. "That's exactly what she was like."
"You knew her?"
"I met her once, before everything went wrong. Our families had a secret meeting when we were kids. Elena was probably eight years old then. She spent the whole time trying to catch fireflies in a jar."
I could almost see it - Elena chasing tiny lights through summer grass, her face bright with wonder. The memory was so vivid it made my chest ache.
"What happened to her?" I asked, though part of me already knew the answer would destroy me.
Kael's face went pale. "She died the same night as my family. But not in the fire."
"Then how?"
"Vincent had brought his family to watch the house burn. To see what happened to people who crossed him. You and Elena were in the car with his bodyguards while he gave orders to his men."
I closed my eyes, trying to pull up more memories. Flashes came back like broken pieces of a movie. The smell of leather car seats. Men in dark suits. The sound of my father's voice, cold and commanding.
"When the fire started, you tried to get out of the car to help," Kael continued. "Elena tried to stop you. She grabbed your arm and begged you not to leave her alone."
Pain stabbed through my heart. "I left her."
"You had to choose. Save the people in the burning house, or stay safe with your sister."
More memories crashed over me like ocean waves. Elena's face, white with terror. Her small hand clutching mine. Her voice, high and scared, saying, "Please don't go, Aria. Please don't leave me."
"I chose to help strangers instead of protecting my own sister," I whispered, horror flooding through me.
"You chose to do what was right," Luna said firmly. "Even as a child, you knew murder was wrong."
"But while I was fighting to get out of the car, Elena panicked. She opened the door and ran toward the woods, trying to follow me. One of your father's men shot her."
The memory hit me like a physical blow. The sound of gunfire. Elena's scream. The way she fell face-first into the snow, red spreading around her like spilled paint.
"No," I moaned, rocking back and forth. "No, no, no."
"Your father was furious. He hadn't ordered anyone to kill his own daughter. But it was too late. Elena was dead because she'd tried to save you from making a terrible mistake."
I couldn't breathe. The guilt was crushing me from the inside, making it impossible to think or speak or do anything except hurt.
Elena had died because of me. Because I'd chosen to save Kael's family instead of staying with her. Because I'd been willing to put strangers before my own sister.
"She was just a little girl," I sobbed. "She was scared and she needed me, and I abandoned her."
"You were a child too," Kael said gently. "You couldn't have known what would happen."
"I should have stayed with her. I should have protected her."
"If you had stayed, my entire family would have burned to death," Luna pointed out. "Including Kael."
"At least Elena would still be alive!"
"Would she?" Marcus stepped forward, his eyes hard. "Vincent Santoro was already planning to kill his own children once they'd served their purpose. Elena would have died eventually anyway."
"You don't know that!"
"Actually, I do." Marcus pulled out a folded paper from his jacket. "This is a copy of Vincent's will, dated two weeks before the attack. It leaves everything to his nephew and specifically states that his daughters are 'temporary assets to be disposed of when no longer useful.'"
The words hit me like slaps. My own father had been planning to murder Elena and me all along.
"He never loved us," I whispered. "We were just tools to him."
"Weapons," Luna corrected. "You were both being trained to infiltrate other crime families. Marry their sons, gain their trust, then destroy them from within."
Elena's face flashed through my memory again. But this time I saw something different. The fear in her eyes hadn't just been about the fire. She'd been terrified of our father. Of what he might do to us if we disobeyed.
"She knew," I breathed. "Elena knew what he was planning. That's why she tried to stop me from getting out of the car. She wasn't just scared of being alone. She was scared of what he'd do to both of us if I made him angry."
More memories flooded back, faster now. Elena crying after "training sessions" with our father. Elena begging me to run away with her. Elena making me promise that no matter what happened, we'd always protect each other.
"I broke my promise," I whispered. "I let her down when she needed me most."
The guilt and grief built up inside me like water behind a cracking dam. All the love I'd felt for my sister, all the pain of losing her, all the horror of knowing I'd failed her - it all crashed over me at once.
"I let her die!" I screamed, the words tearing out of my throat like broken glass. "I chose to save you instead! I let my baby sister die alone and scared because I thought saving strangers was more important!"
The emotional dam burst completely. I collapsed forward, my body shaking with sobs so violent they felt like seizures.
Kael caught me before I hit the ground, pulling me against his chest. The moment his arms wrapped around me, something impossible happened.
Light exploded around us - not from any external source, but from our bodies themselves. My skin glowed with soft silver radiance while Kael's blazed with golden fire.
Both our eyes lit up like stars, casting twin beams of supernatural light into the darkness.
And in that moment of shared illumination, I saw the truth that would change everything.
We weren't just connected by tragedy and circumstance.
We were connected by something far more ancient and powerful than either of us had ever imagined.