Chapter 73. Where Shadows Settle

Aria awoke to stillness so complete, it felt like the world had forgotten to breathe.

Her room was wrapped in early dusk—or was it dawn? The light that filtered through the cracked window shutters was gray and listless, too diluted to tell. She wasn’t sure how long she’d slept, or if she had truly slept at all. There were no dreams, only that voice.

Always the voice.

Always whispering: Mine.

She sat up slowly, spine taut like a drawn bowstring. The mark on her chest—the one that had burned the night before—no longer throbbed, but she could still feel its echo pulsing beneath her skin. Not pain. Not heat. Something else. Like it was watching her from inside.

Her fingers brushed over the fabric of her shirt, damp with sweat. She hadn’t worn the nightclothes Cassandra had left folded by the bed. The idea of softness—of surrender—felt obscene now. Every part of her was wired, waiting. For what, she didn’t know. But it was coming.

She moved to the mirr