Chapter 76 Sound of His Name

Chapter 76 Sound of His Name
Sounds of thunder strikes and Aria felt it long before she heard the thunder an electric tremor beneath her skin, a pressure building in the air that mirrored the heaviness inside her chest. She stood at the balcony of the East Tower, fingers curled around the cold stone, staring out at the forest where shadows moved like restless spirits. The moon was half-shrouded by clouds, silver bleeding through the darkness in thin, trembling strands.

Lucian had not come to her tonight.

He always came.

Even after the council’s warnings, even after the serpent’s influence clawed deeper into his soul, even after she had pushed him away with words she didn’t truly mean… he still found her. In silence. In anger. In apology. In hunger. He always came.

Tonight, he did not.

Aria drew a slow breath, but it shook on the way out. Her heartbeat was too loud in her ears. Too lonely. Too accusing.

This is your fault.

The whisper wasn’t cruel. It was honest. Because for the first time since the Blood Moon, she had seen something in Lucian’s eyes that terrified her,not the monster, not the king, not the shadows.but the man.

The man who was afraid of losing her.

The man she had wounded.

She pressed her palm to her sternum, trying to steady the ache there. The bond pulsed quietly, not severed, not forgotten, just… muted. As if he’d wrapped it in a wall of silence to keep himself from feeling too much.

A low wind swept past her, carrying the smell of oncoming rain. It filled her lungs, but did nothing to calm her.

“Aria.”

The voice came from behind,the softest murmur, warm, steady. Marcel.

She didn’t turn. She didn’t have to. He always approached her this way, as if afraid to disrupt whatever storm brewed in her thoughts.

“You felt it too,” she said quietly.

Marcel stepped to her side, resting his arms on the railing. “Lucian’s absence?”

She nodded, throat tight.

“It’s not like him,” Marcel added gently. “Not anymore.”

Not anymore.

Not since everything between her and Lucian had shifted,deepened, sharpened, tangled itself beyond choice or reason. Not since desire stopped being the only force tying them together. Not since truth began rising between them like a second heartbeat.

Aria closed her eyes. “He’s shutting me out.”

“Or protecting you,” Marcel countered.

She shook her head. “From what? Himself?”

Marcel looked away, jaw tightening.

The silence stretched, thick and suffocating. Until she forced herself to speak the truth gnawing at her ribs.

“I hurt him.”

Marcel didn’t deny it. Didn’t soften it. Only sighed. “You did.”

Aria swallowed hard. “Then why does it feel like I’m the one breaking apart?”

Marcel’s voice gentled. “Because you love him.”

Her breath stopped.

Just stopped.

The world seemed to tilt. The night around her flickered in and out of focus. For a moment, Aria wasn’t in the tower but on the night of the crimson moon,the night she first saw Lucian through the smoke and ruin, shadows swirling behind him like a crown made of darkness and fear. She had despised him. Feared him. Hated the pull she didn’t yet understand.

How could it have become this?

She forced out a trembling exhale. “I don’t know what I feel.”

“Yes,” Marcel murmured, “you do.”

She couldn’t reply. Not without unraveling. And she already felt so close to it—her edges soft, her heart raw, her thoughts spiraling.

If Lucian didn’t come tonight…

If he truly meant to distance himself…

What would happen to them?

To the bond?

To her?

Thunder cracked across the sky, brutally loud. Lightning followed, illuminating the dark forest in a flash, revealing movement—shadows scattering, branches bending as if something powerful moved beneath them.

Aria straightened, every sense snapping into high alert.

“Marcel,” she whispered, “do you see that?”

He had already unsheathed his dagger. “Something’s out there.”

A surge of dread coiled through her. “Lucian?”

But the bond was too distant, too muffled. She could no longer read him clearly.

Marcel shook his head. “No. Lucian would never hide from you like this unless—”

“Unless he thought he had to,” she finished.

Lightning flashed again. This time she saw it clearly—an unnatural distortion in the treeline. Shadows twisting. Gathering. Splitting apart. Like something was tearing through the fabric of the night itself.

“Stay here,” Marcel said sharply, starting toward the stairs.

“No.” Aria grabbed his arm. “We go together.”

“We don’t know what’s out there.”

“That’s exactly why I’m not staying behind.”

Marcel studied her for a long moment, then exhaled through his nose. “Fine. But if anything happens—”

“It won’t.”

She wanted to believe it.

She wasn’t sure she did.

They reached the edge of the forest quickly, boots crunching over wet leaves as the storm rolled in. The air was thick, heavy with the scent of earth and something darker—something metallic, ancient.

Aria pushed past a low branch. “Do you sense anything?”

“Only wrongness,” Marcel said. “Like the ground itself is holding its breath.”

The deeper they went, the more the forest changed. The light dimmed unnaturally. The wind died. The shadows thickened.

Aria slowed. Her pulse throbbed, erratic.

Then a whisper.

Soft. Unfamiliar. Like something dragging the syllables across stone.

Aria…

She froze.

Marcel turned sharply. “What was that?”

She didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Her heart was pounding too loudly, drowning everything else. Because that voice…

It wasn’t Lucian’s.

It wasn’t human.

It came again, closer.

Aria…

Marcel grabbed her wrist. “Run. Now.”

But before they could move, the forest ahead of them erupted in a violent swirl of darkness.

Aria staggered back as the shadows surged upward, forming a towering shape—half form, half smoke, eyes glowing like coals buried deep in ash.

A hiss broke through the air.

The serpent’s magic.

Marcel shoved her behind him. “Stay close.”

But Aria stepped forward, heat rising beneath her skin,her power responding instinctively, flaring, burning.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered to the creature.

Its voice slithered between the trees.

He called for me.

Her breath collapsed inward.

Lucian?

The creature’s eyes pulsed brighter.

He is breaking, it rasped. And you are the reason.

The words sliced through her.

Marcel swore under his breath. “Ignore it. It’s trying to get into your head.”

But Aria’s throat had already tightened. “Where is he?”

The creature tilted its head, a grotesque, fluid motion.

Alone… in the dark… whispering your name like a curse.

The pain hit her deep, sharp.

Marcel lunged forward, blade glowing faintly as he struck. But the creature dissolved before the steel touched it, reappearing behind them.

Aria spun, fire igniting along her palm.

“Enough,” she snapped, voice trembling with both fury and fear. “Tell me where he is.”

The creature leaned closer until its breath slid cold across her cheek.

He is losing himself.

Her fire flared violently.

You can still save him, it hissed. But only if you are willing to bleed for him.

The storm cracked overhead, lightning lighting the creature’s form in jagged pieces.

Marcel tightened his grip on her arm. “Don’t listen to it. Aria—”

She pulled free.

Because deep in her soul—in the bond, even muted—she felt something.

A tremor.

A cry.

A shadowed plea.

Lucian.

He was calling for her.

The creature began to fade, its form unraveling like smoke pulled into an unseen wind.

As it vanished, its final whisper curled around Aria’s spine:

Come find him, little fire… before the darkness does.

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When the forest fell silent again, Aria realized her hands were shaking.

Marcel touched her shoulder carefully. “Aria… are you alright?”

She closed her eyes, forcing a steady breath. “I need to find him.”

“Then I’m coming with you.”

She shook her head. “No. This is between me and Lucian. And whatever part of him is slipping.”

“Aria—”

“I’ll be safe,” she whispered, though she wasn’t sure she believed it. “But if he’s really slipping into the serpent’s shadows… I’m the only one he’ll still fight for.”

Marcel’s expression softened with reluctant understanding.

“You love him,” he repeated quietly.

Aria didn’t deny it this time.

She simply stepped into the darkness of the forest, heart trembling with fear and resolve.

“Lucian,” she whispered, letting the bond pull her in the direction where she felt the faintest echo of him.

The trees swallowed her as she went.

And somewhere in the depths of the night, she felt him whisper her name.

Not like a curse, but like a prayer.