Chapter 50. The Bloodline Awakens

The flames cast strange shadows across the basin walls, etching every face with a flicker of something ancient—something feral. Aria could feel the weight of each pair of eyes like fingers pressed against her skin.

She didn’t flinch.

But she felt it coming.

Jayna leaned forward, and though she didn’t raise her voice, it sharpened, cutting through the air like a blade honed for years in silence.

“If you had not remembered who you were in time,” she said, “would that girl still be breathing?”

The words hit Aria in the stomach—not because they were cruel, but because they were true. The memory of the child’s eyes—wide, fragile, certain—was seared into her. Not fear. Not hatred. But the echo of something sacred. Recognition.

“I don’t know,” Aria answered softly.

That answer wasn’t what the Circle expected.

It wasn’t a denial.

It wasn’t guilt.

It was honesty.

“You admit the risk, then,” said a different voice, this one fro