CHAPTER 5 - He Turns Too Late

Something inside me breaks when I hear my name echo down the hall.

I walk more quickly.

I then began to run.

I don't look back.

His voice keeps coming back to me like a wound that won't heal.

"Stop Aria. “Please.”

When I keep going, my heels hit the marble like they're making a bad choice. Even though my lungs hurt, I don't slow down. I will not give him the chance to lie again. I will not let him catch me in the softness of his voice.

“Aria!”

The sound of his steps gets louder. Strong. Determined.

Of course he chases.

He always chases when it is too late.

My breath shakes. My chest rises and falls too fast.

My thoughts mix with pain and fury until I can’t tell which hurts more.

He touched her stomach.

He held her the way he used to hold me.

He whispered things to her that he stopped saying to me months ago.

And that bright mark…

That mark that showed when their skin brushed.

My entire world is slipping out from beneath my feet.

I reach the end of the hallway, ready to turn quickly and disappear, when a hand catches my wrist hard, warm, and trembling.

His voice breaks.

“Aria… please. Don’t walk away like this.”

I whip my hand free so fast his fingers flinch.

“Don’t touch me.”

He freezes.

From the corner of my eye, I see the fight on his faceguilt, fear, something else I can’t name.

But I don’t care.

I turn toward him fully, my voice low and burning.

“You chased me now, Damon? Now? After hiding her like she was your precious secret? After touching her like I wasn’t even in the same room?”

His jaw tightens. “It isn’t what you think.”

“That’s funny,” I say, “because I think you were holding your mistress. And I think she’s pregnant. And I think you knew that before you ever kissed me goodbye tonight.”

Pain flashes through his eyes.

Real pain.

But it only makes me angry.

He steps closer. “Aria, I didn’t want you to find out like this. I was going to tell you”

“When?” I cut in. “When did she give birth? When your child called you ‘Daddy’? When the mate bond became too strong for you to pretend I mattered?”

His breath catches not at my words, but at the word mate.

So it’s true.

He didn’t deny it.

He wouldn’t.

My heart twists.

“Aria…” His voice drops. “You know I care about you.”

“‘Care’?”

The word feels dirty in my mouth.

I shake my head. “Don’t insult me. Not tonight.”

He takes another step forward.

I step back.

The space between us is thick enough to choke on.

“Listen to me.” His voice breaks again. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“Yet you did.”

I swallow hard. “Over and over. And this time, you didn’t even hesitate.”

Adam's apple moves. “It wasn’t planned.”

“Right,” I say. “Because you just accidentally walked into her arms? Accidentally touched her stomach? Accidentally whispered that you can’t lose her again?”

His eyes widened.

He knows I heard.

He knows it changes everything.

“Aria… I”

“Don’t.”

My voice trembles.

“You’ve said enough tonight.”

A sharp pulse hits my spine.

Heat spreads through my chest, down my arms, to the tips of my fingers.

I close my eyes, trying to steady myself, but the shaking only gets worse.

My palm burns.

Not the soft warmth of shame.

Not the sting of anger.

Something else.

Something living.

“Aria?” Damon whispers. “What’s happening to you?”

I open my eyes.

A thin ribbon of gold light flickers from my palmsmall, spinning like a breath.

I gasp and hide my hand behind my back.

But he saw it.

Of course he did.

“What was that?” he demands. “Ariawhat the hell was that?”

“I don’t know.”

But I do.

Deep down, I do.

I’ve always known I wasn’t regular.

I just never knew when the truth would wake.

And it chooses to wake tonight of all nights.

Damon steps closer, confusion and fear tightening his features.

“Aria… tell me the truth.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” I snapped.

“Aria, this is serious. That that was it came from you. You need to tell me”

“No.” I shake my head hard. “You don’t get to ask questions. You don’t get answers. You don’t get me.”

The glow fades.

But the damage is done.

Both of us feel it.

Something inside me shifted.

Something real.

Something dangerous.

He rakes a shaky hand through his hair.

“You shouldn’t walk away like this,” he says. “Not when things are this complicated.”

“Complicated?” I laugh dark, humorless. “You mean because your mistress is pregnant?”

His face tightens. “This isn’t fair.”

“Oh, no,” I say. “Fair would have been honest. Fair would have been telling me before the world found out. Fair would have been treating me like your wife.”

My voice cracks on the last word.

He hears it.

He feels it.

And for a moment, he looks like the man I used to trust.

But the moment passes.

He sighs. “Aria… I never planned to fall into the bond.”

The bond.

There it is.

The word that tears me open.

“The bond,” I repeat, hollow. “So you admit it.”

He presses his lips together. “I didn’t want it.”

“But you wanted her,” I say.

His quiet is the cruelest answer of all.

Before I can speak again, a faint sound drifts from behind me.

A step.

Slow.

Confidence.

A voice follows smooth, deep, and pleased.

“Impressive.”

I freeze.

So does Damon.

We both turn, and the air seems to shift around the presence rising from the shadows.

A tall man comes into view.

Sharp eyes.

Cold face.

A faint smirk on his lips, as if he just watched a secret show meant only for him.

Damon stiffens quickly.

His jaw tightens in a way I’ve never seen before.

The stranger’s eyes move over me curious, assessing, a little too calm.

“You hide it well,” he whispers. “But not well enough.”

I swallow. “Who are you?”

He smiles without feeling. “Someone who’s been waiting for tonight.”

My heart thumps. “Why?”

“Because your power finally woke up.” He tilts his head. “And I needed to see it with my own eyes.”

Damon steps in front of me, voice sharp.

“Lucian. This is none of your business.”

Lucian.

The name hits me like a jolt.

I’ve heard tales of him, business rumors, power whispers, the kind of name people speak quietly, without daring to say too much.

Lucian Blackthorne.