Chapter 13 Thirteen
Chapter 13 Thirteen
Chapter Thirteen
Aria’s POV
Something inside the bond changed.
It started as a pulse that didn’t belong to him.
At first I thought it was fear, his fear, but it was colder, quieter, too still. Then came a sound that made my whole body tighten. A laugh. Soft. Female. Inside my head.
I froze.
The connection between us had always felt like warmth, a steady rhythm I could fall into. But now it was jagged, layered, wrong. It felt like someone else was breathing through Kael’s lungs.
I tried to reach for him through the link, whispering his name in my mind the way I’d learned to, but what came back wasn’t him.
You don’t belong here.
The voice wasn’t loud. It was calm, too calm, the kind of voice that smiled while cutting a throat.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
The bond pulsed once, like laughter against my pulse. Then silence.
I ran to the hall before I could think. Every step hurt, not in my body but somewhere deeper. The bond wasn’t pulling me toward him anymore; it was warning me away.
I found Mrs. Blake standing outside his room. Her face told me everything before she spoke.
“You felt it,” she said.
“Who is she?”
Her lips pressed together. “A ghost that refuses to stay dead.”
“She spoke to me.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“Tell me what’s happening.”
“She’s the one who started the curse.”
I stared at her. “His lover.”
Mrs. Blake nodded slowly. “Once. Before she became something else.”
I couldn’t breathe. “He saw her?”
“Yes.”
“And he didn’t tell me.”
“He’s trying to protect you.”
“That’s not protection,” I said. “That’s a lie.”
“She’s bound to him, Aria. Bound by blood and betrayal. The curse used her death to tie itself to his soul. Your bond is pulling her back through him.”
I shook my head, anger rising hot in my throat. “Then I’ll pull her out.”
Mrs. Blake caught my wrist. “Don’t. She’ll find you first. She’ll use what you feel for him.”
“I won’t let her.”
“You don’t understand what she wants.”
“I don’t need to. I just need to keep him breathing.”
Her eyes softened. “You can’t fight the dead with love.”
“Watch me.”
I tore free before she could stop me. The bond twisted again, sharp as wire. The closer I got to Kael’s room, the stronger the pressure became, fear, guilt, longing, all tangled together until I couldn’t tell which were mine.
When I reached his door, my hand froze over the handle. For a second, the other heartbeat inside the bond grew louder than his.
He belongs to me.
The words hissed inside my skull. I slammed my fist against the wood. “Get out of him!”
Silence. Then his voice, hoarse, strained. “Aria?”
I pushed the door open.
He was standing in the middle of the room, chest heaving, sweat running down his face. His eyes flickered gold, then gray. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“You said that before.”
“This is different.”
“I felt her,” I said. “She’s inside the bond.”
He went still. “What did she say?”
“That I don’t belong.”
Pain crossed his face. “She’s trying to drive you out.”
“She can’t.”
“She can if you give her anger to feed on.”
I wanted to scream, to hit something, to break the air until it stopped feeling like I was drowning. “Why didn’t you tell me she was alive?”
“Because she isn’t,” he said. “Not the way you think.”
“Then what is she?”
“A reminder of what I ruined.”
I took a step closer. “You didn’t ruin me.”
His jaw tightened. “This isn’t about you.”
“Yes, it is. Because she’s using you to reach me.”
He flinched. “Then she’ll come through me again.”
“No.” I moved in front of him. “She’ll have to go through me first.”
The bond snapped like a whip between us, heat surging through my chest. His hands caught my shoulders, eyes burning with panic. “Don’t challenge her.”
“I’m not. I’m claiming what’s mine.”
He shook his head, voice breaking. “You don’t understand how dangerous she is.”
“Then teach me.”
The air trembled between us. The bond’s pull softened, fading back to its usual rhythm, but beneath it was that faint echo, her, waiting.
He looked exhausted. “She’ll come again before the next moon. And she’ll come for you.”
“Then she’ll find me ready.”
He touched my face, hand shaking. “If she takes you, there’s nothing left of me.”
“She won’t.”
He closed his eyes, forehead pressing to mine, breath uneven. “I thought I buried her. I thought it ended.”
“Maybe it’s time to stop burying things and start fighting them.”
Something shifted in him then. I felt it through the bond, a mix of resolve and despair.
“She’ll go for the heart,” he murmured.
“Then she’ll find two.”
He laughed once, rough and low. “You’re going to kill me with hope.”
“Good,” I whispered. “Then at least you’ll die living.”
The bond flared again, a pulse of light through darkness. I felt her presence recoil, furious and distant, her whisper fading into nothing.
For a moment, it was just us again, hearts syncing, breaths tangled.
He looked at me as if trying to memorize the moment. “If she returns, promise me you’ll run.”
“No.”
“Promise me.”
“I can’t,” I said. “You made me part of this. You don’t get to fight alone.”
His grip tightened. “I never wanted you caught in it.”
“I never wanted to live without you.”
He stared at me like I’d broken something holy. Then he let go and stepped back, eyes wet, voice low. “If love’s the weapon she used to curse me, maybe it’ll be the one thing she can’t touch now.”
“Then stop hiding it.”
He looked away, whispering more to himself than to me. “I don’t know if I remember how.”
I reached out and placed his hand against my heart. “Start here.”
His breath shuddered. “Aria…”
The bond hummed soft between us. For the first time since I felt her voice inside my head, the echo went silent.
“She’s gone,” I said.
“For now.”
“But she’ll be back.”
“Yes.”
“Then we face her together.”
He didn’t answer, but his silence felt like agreement.
I stayed there until his breathing evened, until the fear behind his eyes dulled. When I left, I could still feel the bond humming, not in warning this time, but in promise.
I didn’t look back. If I did, I might have seen what I didn’t want to, his eyes flicker gold again, not from the wolf, but from something older, watching us both.