Chapter 112 Blood and Sigils
Aria didn’t believe in coincidences.
She believed everything happened for a reason.
Which was why, that morning, she stood outside the holding quarters where Amanda was being kept, her jaw set and her mind already made up.
The guards stepped aside without question.
Since discovering that Amanda was her half sister, nothing had felt simple. The knowledge still sat wrong in her chest. Unexpected, heavy and unfinished. A shared father. A sister she never knew about but always wanted.
And yet every instinct Aria possessed told her to keep her distance.
Because blood did not erase the sigil carved into Amanda’s skin.
Aria entered.
Amanda sat at the small wooden table near the barred window. She looked up as the door shut behind Aria.
“I didn’t think you would want to see me,” Amanda said.
“I didn’t come to chat,” Aria replied.
Silence stretched, thin and brittle.
Amanda’s sleeve had ridden up slightly, exposing the inside of her wrist.
The sigil.
Aria’s eyes locked onto it instantly. The same angular mark she had seen burned into stone the night her haven was attacked. The same symbol carved into pillars and bodies.
“Take your sleeve down,” Aria said quietly.
Amanda didn’t.
Instead, she slowly rolled it up farther.
The full sigil came into view.
No hesitation. No attempt to hide it.
“I know you saw it already. Do you recognize it?” Amanda said.
“Yes.”
Aria stepped closer. “The Ashen Circle,” she said. “That symbol was at my haven the night it was attacked.”
Amanda’s throat tightened almost imperceptibly.
“I know.”
“You were recruited by them.”
“Yes.”
“So you knew who I was all along?”
“Believe it or not, I didn’t.”
Aria said nothing. She waited.
Amanda looked down at the tattoo for a moment, then back up.
“After my father died, the Ironclaw Pack was attacked by a coven of witches. They killed everyone present and let me walk away. I’m guessing they let me live because they saw I was a part witch. The pack decided that meant I led them there. I told them that I did but it didn’t matter. They cast me out anyway.”
Aria remained quiet.
“A few weeks later, the Ashen Circle found me. They took in people who didn’t belong anywhere else. Hybrids. Rogues. Witches rejected by their covens. Wolves cast out by their packs. They said they were building something better. Something free.”
“And were they?” Aria asked.
Amanda’s gaze hardened. “At first, I thought so.”
“They believed the old systems were corrupt,” she continued. “Packs. Covens. Hierarchies. They thought the world needed to be broken before it could be rebuilt.”
Aria felt the cold edge beneath those words.
“And the haven?” she asked. “Was that part of rebuilding?”
Amanda’s throat worked.
“I didn’t know about the attack. Not until after. I had already left by then.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Because I didn’t agree with what they became. They stopped wanting reform. They wanted dominance. They decided fear was the only language worth speaking.” A bitter edge crossed her mouth. “Turns out being cast out makes people dangerous. Some of them leaned into it hard.”
“And you didn’t,” Aria said. Flat. Not quite a question.
“I didn’t want to burn everything down. I just wanted somewhere to stand.”
Aria studied her. “Are you still in contact with them?”
“No.” Amanda’s answer came without hesitation. “I cut that off when I left. I have nothing to offer them anymore and I have no interest in finding out what they’d do to me if they found me.”
“Then explain to me why you came after my power,” Aria said. “The blackmail. The threats. My children. What was any of that for?”
Amanda was quiet for a moment. When she spoke, the edge in her voice had dropped into something quieter.
“Because I’m afraid of them.”
Amanda’s admission shocked her. She knew Amanda to be a lot of things. Scared wasn’t one of them.
“When I left the Circle, I knew what I was walking away from. I knew what they were capable of. I’ve seen what they do to people who leave.” Amanda looked down at the sigil. “I needed to be strong enough that if they ever came for me, I’d survive it.”
She looked back up.
“Your power is unlike anything I’ve encountered. You’re a moon healer. I thought if I could take even a fraction of that, I’d have a fighting chance.”
“So you threatened my children,” Aria said. “To protect yourself.”
“Yes.” Amanda didn’t dress it up. “I’m not asking you to forgive that. I know what I did.”
Aria’s wolf stirred beneath her skin. She searched Amanda’s face. Measured her breathing. Listened to the rhythm of her pulse.
No obvious lie.
But Amanda had given her enough reasons before now.
“For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve only ever moved to protect yourself,” Aria said. “And every time I start to consider believing you, I find something else you kept from me.”
“Would you have listened if I’d told you the truth from the start?” Amanda asked.
“Yes.”
Amanda gave her a look that said she didn’t believe that.
Aria exhaled. She didn’t want to be the bigger person. She knew she had to be anyway.
“I understand being afraid,” she said. The words felt strange but she let them sit. “But fear doesn’t give you the right to use my children as leverage.”
“No,” Amanda said quietly. “It doesn’t.”
The room held the silence between them.
“If the Ashen Circle comes for you,” Aria said at last, “threatening me was never going to save you. You should have come to me directly.”
Amanda looked at her. Something shifted in her expression. Not quite surprise. Something closer to it.
“You would have helped me?”
Aria held her gaze. “I would have listened. That’s more than you gave me the chance to do.”
Amanda opened her mouth to respond.
Aria’s phone buzzed.
She glanced at the screen. Maya.
She held up a hand to Amanda and answered. “Hey, Maya, It’s not a good time.”
“Aria, stop.” Maya’s voice cut through the line.
Tight. Controlled in the way it only got when something had already gone wrong. “You need to listen to me right now.”
Aria went still.
Whatever Maya said next, she said it in three sentences.
The color drained from Aria’s face.
Amanda watched her straighten, watched something shift behind her eyes. Not fear exactly. Something worse than fear.
“I’m on my way,” Aria said.
She ended the call.
For a moment she didn’t move. Her jaw was set. Her pulse, which had been steady the entire conversation, was no longer steady.
She looked at Amanda once.
Then she headed to the door, “I have to go.”
The door shut behind her.