Chapter 53: Trick

Chapter 53: Trick
The SUV felt smaller after what happened. Marcus didn’t start the engine right away—he just sat there, both hands gripping the wheel like he wasn’t sure it was solid.

Damien slid back into the car, closing the door with a slow, controlled movement. The kind he used when he was furious but holding himself together for my sake.

“Ariel,” he said quietly, “look at me.”

I did.

He studied my face, searching for any crack, any sign I was about to fall apart. But I wasn’t. Not yet. The shock was holding me upright.

“That thing,” I whispered, “it wasn’t just mimicking Ethan.”

His jaw tightened. “I know.”

“It felt like him.”

“Ariel—”

“No.” My voice didn’t shake, even though everything else inside me did. “It felt like him. Like he was trying to reach me.”

Marcus exhaled, long and low. “Sir… we need to move. Whatever that was? It wasn’t acting alone.”

Damien didn’t look away from me. “He’s right. We need to go.”

The engine started. The car rolled forward.

But the road ahead wasn’t what it was before. It felt heavier somehow, like the night had grown darker in the space of minutes.

I leaned my head against the window, watching the forest blur by in streaks of black and silver.

Ethan’s voice wouldn’t leave my mind.

Why did you leave me?
Ariel… I’m sorry.

I closed my eyes as the words twisted inside me.

I didn’t want this connection.
I didn’t choose it.
But something in me responded anyway—like a chord pulled tight.

Damien reached for my hand without looking. His thumb brushed the back of it slowly, grounding me.

“Whatever you’re thinking,” he said quietly, “don’t carry it alone.”

“I’m not,” I whispered. “I’m trying not to.”

“Good.”

He lifted our hands to his lips, pressing a small, steady kiss to my knuckles. A simple, human gesture. And somehow that steadied me more than anything else tonight.

We drove in silence after that.

No more creatures.

No more voices.

Just the hum of the engine and the soft blur of streetlights as the city began to appear in the distance.

I was almost starting to believe the worst was behind us when Marcus’s phone buzzed.

He glanced at the screen.

His face changed.

Not fear.
Not confusion.
Something colder.

He looked at Damien through the rearview mirror. “Sir… you need to see this.”

Damien leaned forward slightly. “Who is it?”

Marcus swallowed once.

“It’s Ethan.”

My heart stopped. “What?”

Marcus turned the screen toward us.

A video call notification lit up the display.

ETHAN — calling…

The little preview window showed nothing but darkness.

But then—
just for a second—
a flicker of a face appeared.

Not the creature.
Not a mimic.

Ethan.

Alive.

Or something close to it.

His lips moved soundlessly on the tiny screen.

My breath caught.

“Damien,” I whispered, “he’s trying to call me.”

“No.” Damien’s voice dropped. “He’s trying to get to you.”

The phone vibrated again.

ETHAN — calling…

This time the preview flickered harder.

His mouth formed a single word.

My name.

A soft, broken whisper through the static:

“Ariel… please.”

The call kept ringing.

No one moved.

No one breathed.

The SUV kept rolling down the dark road…

while Ethan tried to reach me from somewhere he shouldn’t exist.

Damien finally spoke, his voice low and dangerous:

“Ariel… don’t answer it.”

But my phone buzzed next.

A soft, gentle vibration.

I looked down to see a text popped up on my screen and it's from an unknown number. It's read: I know what your power really is.

Please… let me call you.

It’s me. Ariel… I didn’t die.

My hands went cold.

Damien saw my face change. “Ariel—what is it?"

I swallowed hard, and read the last line out loud: “Ariel… he didn’t kill me. I need to tell d jhnnuuh

The moment the call ended, Damian’s arm stayed around me like he was expecting the next blow to come from the walls themselves. He didn’t even blink. He just stood there, chest rising too slow for someone who was supposed to be calm.

I hated how quiet the room felt after Ethan’s voice vanished.

I pulled away from Damian only enough to breathe, rubbing my fingers together because they wouldn’t stop shaking. Not trembling—shaking. Like my body didn’t know whose voice it belonged to.

Damian noticed immediately.

“Ariel,” he said softly, “sit.”

“I’m not going to faint,” I muttered, even though my knees felt like cardboard. “I’m just—processing.”

He raised a brow. “Processing? You went cold in my arms.”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t have the courage to say that hearing Ethan say my name had felt wrong. Wrong like someone opening a door into a room that belonged only to me.

Damian stepped in front of me again, closer than before. “Look at me.”

I did. I wished I hadn’t. Because I saw it: the kind of anger he only swallowed when he was too scared to show it.

“How did he get your number?” he asked quietly.

“I—I don’t know.”
It sounded weak. Even to me.

“Did you ever give it to him?” he asked, voice gentler but not soft.

“No,” I said quickly. “Never.”

Damian nodded slowly, thinking, and that terrified me more than his anger. His thinking face meant he was putting pieces together I didn’t know existed.

He paced once, twice, then stopped near the window, looking out at the city lights as if Ethan might be hidden between the buildings.

“He shouldn’t have been able to find us,” he murmured. “Not here.”

“I know.”

“Then how,” he said, turning sharply, “did Ethan dial you like he had you saved under favorites?”

Something in my throat tightened. “Maybe—maybe it was a trick. A spell. You know he’s not human anymore.”

“He’s not a witch either,” Damian said. “He shouldn’t be able to reach you directly without a conduit.”

“A conduit,” I repeated, sitting on the edge of the bed, squeezing my hands. “Like a link?”

“Like someone helping him,” Damian said.

That landed like a slap.

Someone helping him. Someone who had access to my number. To my movements. To our escape.

My chest tightened. “Do you think someone from your pack—?”

“No.”
He cut me off too fast.

“Damian—”

“No,” he repeated, walking toward me again. “My pack is loyal. They don’t leak. They don’t talk. They don’t betray.”

“People break,” I said softly. “Even loyal ones.”

“There’s no one around me who would risk your safety,” he said.

He believed it. He really did.

But I wasn’t stupid. Loyalty had levels. And fear made cracks in anything.

I stood, bracing myself on the nightstand. “Damian… how did Ethan even know we were running? How did he know which direction we went? You covered our tracks.”

He didn’t answer immediately.

His silence scared me more than Ethan’s voice.

Finally, he said, “He’s getting help.”

“From who?” I whispered.

Damian’s eyes met mine. Dark. Sharp.

“From someone who knows your magic better than we do.”

My stomach dropped. Hard.

The only person who fit that description—

“My mother?” I breathed.

Damian frowned. “No. She’s not reaching out from the astral plane to guide him. But someone from her former coven? Someone older? Someone who knows the bloodline?” He paused. “Yes. That’s possible.”

Something twisted in my chest.

I wrapped my arms around myself. “I don’t want my mother tied to this.”

He stepped closer, placing his hands around my arms and rubbing slow circles. “Maybe she’s not. But someone is watching you. Someone who understands the way your magic hums.”

I looked up sharply. “What do you mean hums?”

Damian hesitated. “Ariel… your magic bleeds through you. Even when you aren’t trying. It leaves traces.”

“I didn’t—”

“I know,” he said quickly. “It’s not your fault. But now that you’re awakening, the world can feel you like a heat source.”

Something cold slid down my spine.

“Are you saying I’m… trackable?”

“Yes.”

I closed my eyes.

Of course I was.

Of course something inside me couldn’t stay quiet.

Damian reached up and touched my cheek carefully, as if he thought I might flinch. “Ariel. Look at me.”

I did.

“You’re not the problem,” he said. “Someone is using what you are, not who you are.”

For a second, I almost believed him. Almost.

But then the air conditioner clicked on, just a small sound, but it made both of us turn.

Damian’s hand instantly dropped from my cheek.

“Ariel,” he whispered, “get behind me.”

My heart stuttered. “What—?”

“That vent.”
He nodded toward the corner of the ceiling.

I followed his gaze.

Something was there.
Something small.
Something I didn’t see earlier.

A thin red dot pulsed once. Twice.

Not a laser.

Not a light.

A notification.

A camera notification.

Someone had turned it on remotely.

Damian swore under his breath and stepped in front of me, shielding my body with his.

Then—

The camera clicked softly.
As if someone was adjusting its focus.

Then a voice crackled through a tiny embedded speaker:

“…Ariel? Can you hear me?”

I froze.

Damian froze.

The voice was breathy. Familiar. Too familiar.

Ethan.

But the worst part wasn’t hearing him.

It was hearing the way he laughed right after.

A soft, pleased, knowing sound.

“Found you.”