Chapter 41: Stay
The silence was too still.
Aria stood frozen in the dim training room, heart hammering against her chest. That sound hadn't been her imagination. Somewhere, deep in the marrow of her bones, the power stirred—a restless pulse sliding along her skin, warning her.
A crack, sharp and final, echoed through the building.
The window shattered inward.
Glass rained like frozen rain around a figure who landed in a low, feral crouch between her and the only door. Aria stumbled back instinctively, her hand flashing up. A shimmering shield of power snapped to life in front of her, jagged and uneven but enough to buy a few heartbeats of protection.
Her breath caught when she recognized the intruder.
Selene.
No mask. No hesitation.
And behind her—three more figures surged into the room, faceless in black, their hands blooming with unnatural magic that coiled and spat sparks across the floor.
Selene moved before Aria could think.
A blur of lethal precision, she met the first attacker with a flash of metal and bone-shattering force. Blood spattered the mats in a dark arc as the man dropped, soundless. The second reached for her throat—and was met with a blade through the ribs, Selene twisting the hilt with a cruel grace that made Aria's stomach flip.
The third lunged—past Selene, straight for Aria.
Panic cinched tight in Aria's chest, freezing her feet to the ground.
A blade whistled through the air—closer, closer—
And then the attacker was ripped backward by an unseen force, slammed against the far wall with a crack loud enough to echo. His body crumpled and slid to the ground, unmoving.
Aria's hands dropped from her useless shield.
She stared at Selene—at the raw violence etched into the lines of her body, at the way her breath came ragged through gritted teeth, the torn coat, the smudge of blood darkening the white of her sleeve.
Selene straightened slowly, her silver hair a halo of disarray around her face. Her ice-bright eyes locked onto Aria, and something inside Aria twisted, unfamiliar and wild.
"You came back," Aria whispered, her voice breaking on the final word.
Selene didn't answer. She simply stood there, breathing hard, her gaze drinking Aria in like she wasn't sure if she was real—or a ghost.
A thousand questions tangled in Aria's chest—where had Selene been? Why had she left? Why hadn't she said goodbye? But none of them mattered, not when Selene looked at her like that. Like nothing else existed.
Selene turned as if to leave again.
No.
Not this time.
Before she could think, Aria crossed the space between them, reaching out and grabbing Selene's wrist. Her fingers closed over cold skin—shockingly cold, like she was touching a piece of winter itself. A shiver ran through her, not from the chill, but from something deeper, a craving she didn't understand. Her breath hitched.
"Don't," Aria whispered, tightening her hold. "Don't you dare walk away again."
Selene stilled beneath her touch.
Aria stepped closer, emboldened by something reckless and aching. She pressed her body forward until there was barely an inch between them. Selene's skin radiated frost; the air around her seemed thinner, sharper. The icy chill that poured off her should have made Aria recoil—but it didn't. It made her heart race. Made her thighs clench instinctively, heat pooling at her core with a shameful urgency she didn't fully understand.
It made her want.
"You left me," Aria said, her voice trembling. "You didn't even say goodbye."
Selene's mouth twitched—something like regret flickering across her expression—but her hand, cool and strong, curled loosely around Aria's wrist, trapping it against her side.
"I thought I was protecting you," she said, voice low and rough.
"By running away?" Aria bit out, blinking fast against the sudden sting behind her eyes. She could feel the cold sinking into her skin, feel the delicious shiver it stirred low in her belly. Her cheeks burned, flushing crimson under Selene's icy gaze. "You think disappearing is protection? Leaving me behind is mercy?"
Selene's thumb brushed against the inside of her wrist absently, the slightest motion—and Aria almost gasped aloud. The touch wasn't warm, wasn't comforting. It was cold, invasive, leaving a trail of heatless fire along her nerve endings. Her knees almost buckled.
She was dizzy from how close they were.
She hated how much she craved more.
Selene's gaze darkened, sensing her reaction, and her lips curved into a slow, knowing smirk.
"You're trembling," Selene murmured, voice a taunt.
"I'm not—" Aria started, but her breath hitched again when Selene's other hand, colder still, ghosted up her side, not quite touching, but close enough that Aria's body strained toward it instinctively. Her thighs pressed together in a desperate, unconscious motion that made her flush deeper.
She wasn't cold. She was starving.
And Selene knew it.
"You are," Selene purred, stepping closer, her voice like silk on broken glass. "Not from fear. Not from cold."
Aria shuddered helplessly, trying to pull back, but Selene caught her chin between her fingers, forcing her to meet her gaze. That frostbitten hand tilted her face upward—and Aria's lips parted in a trembling gasp she couldn't suppress.
"From something else," Selene whispered against her mouth, so close but not touching.
Aria whimpered, a tiny, broken sound she couldn't help.
Selene's smile turned sharper, crueler. "You don't even know what you're aching for yet, little flame."
Aria tried to speak—to protest—but Selene finally touched her, fingers skimming down her throat with deliberate slowness. Everywhere her icy skin met Aria's fevered flesh, it left behind a trail of aching, desperate want. Aria's legs wobbled. Her center throbbed with a need she didn't have words for, only the unbearable pressure building between her thighs.
"I could ruin you," Selene breathed, the promise coiling around Aria like a noose. "You'd beg for more before you even understood what you were begging for."
Aria whimpered again, this time clutching Selene's coat with trembling hands, grounding herself against the overwhelming need clouding her senses.
"Stay," she choked out, tears brimming. "Please… stay."
The power between them crackled—her heat, Selene's ice—meeting, clashing, hungering.
Selene stared at her for a long moment, the mocking glint fading from her gaze, replaced by something heavier, more dangerous.
She leaned in, lips brushing the shell of Aria's ear, so lightly it barely counted as touch—but it made Aria moan softly anyway, her whole body straining closer, mindlessly seeking more.
"I'll stay," Selene promised darkly, breath ghosting against her skin like a brand. "But when I finally have you, little flame… there will be no mercy."
Aria's knees gave out—and Selene caught her with infuriating ease, holding her trembling body against her cold one.
The last thought Aria had, as she buried her face into Selene's torn coat, was that she wasn't afraid.
She was starving.
And Selene had every intention of feeding that hunger until Aria forgot she had ever lived without it.