CHAPTER 20: BLOOD AND SHADOWS
Aria woke—or at least, she thought she had.
The room was swallowed by shadows, save for the faint moonlight seeping through the curtains to cast silver streaks across the floor. Her heart hammered against her ribs, her palms were clammy, and a lingering chill crawled down her spine. The remnants of the dream clung to her like a shroud.
In the vision, she had been sprawled on a cold stone floor. Her sun-kissed hair had turned a stark, ghostly white; her skin was as pale as fallen snow. Blood—crimson and warm—pooled beneath her, though she couldn't tell if it was her own. Her body had ached with a spectral heaviness, a phantom pain that pressed onto her chest like a physical weight.
Beside her knelt a girl. Her hair cascaded like molten moonlight, and her eyes, pale and brimming with sorrow, searched Aria's face. She wept silently, reaching out with trembling fingers but never making contact. Aria didn't know her name, yet the girl's grief felt hauntingly familiar, pulling at a string deep inside her soul.
Then, Kael appeared.
He was the Alpha, her protector, yet in the dream, he looked utterly shattered. He knelt on the other side of her, his powerful hands hovering uselessly over her cooling skin. Tears tracked down his face, softening the sharp, rugged lines of his jaw into an expression of raw vulnerability that unsettled Aria to her core.
The silver-haired girl whispered something. Aria couldn't catch the words, but she felt the intent: a desperate, quiet promise that this moment was not an ending, but a warning.
Aria tried to scream, to move, to reach out—but her voice had abandoned her. She was a ghost in her own mind, forced to watch as Kael's shoulders shook with silent anguish while the room, drenched in blood and shadows, closed in around them.
Then, the world shattered.
Aria lunged upright, gasping for air. Her body trembled as she realized she was back in her bed. The moonlight was real, the sheets were damp with sweat, but the vision remained imprinted on her retinas.
She pressed her back against the pillows, her chest heaving. She tried to piece the fragments together, but the meaning remained hazy. Only one thing was certain: the dream was a premonition of danger she could no longer ignore.
Minutes passed—or perhaps hours—until the moonlight shifted across the ceiling. Aria was still staring into the dark when a soft, deliberate knock echoed through the room.
"Princess Aria?" a voice called. It was smooth and polite, yet laced with an undeniable edge of authority. "It is time for your morning routine."
Aria's stomach twisted. She had expected Mira, her usual maid. Instead, Seraphina entered.
The woman moved with a serene, almost eerie perfection. Her gaze was sharp, sweeping the room with a calculating precision that made Aria feel exposed. She carried herself with a confidence that felt entirely out of place for a servant.
"Good morning, Princess," Seraphina said. Her tone was soft, yet it carried the weight of a command. She didn't miss the lingering terror on Aria's face or the way her fingers bunched the silk sheets.
Aria forced herself to sit up, smoothing her hair in a futile attempt to look composed. "Good morning," she murmured, her voice wavering.
Seraphina's lips curved into a faint, knowing smile. "I see the events of last night troubled you," she said lightly, stepping closer. "Do not worry, Princess. Today will be pleasant. You have your duties, and I am here to ensure you are prepared."
Aria nodded slowly. There was something predatory beneath Seraphina's calm exterior—something that made her skin crawl. Yet, trapped by etiquette, she could only watch as the maid began arranging her garments with practiced, unsettling grace.
"Princess, your bath is ready," Seraphina announced.
"Just... give me a minute," Aria replied, trying to shake the feeling that her new shadow was watching her a little too closely.
Aria reached for the ties of her nightgown, beginning to undress herself.
"Let me help you, Princess," Seraphina said, gliding toward her side.
"No, thank you. I can handle it," Aria said, keeping her expression carefully neutral. She paused, then added, "Just help me with the buttons at the back."
Seraphina froze for a fraction of a second, a flicker of shock crossing her face before she masked it with a cool nod. In her experience, royalty didn't lift a finger for such tasks, but Aria was proving to be a different breed of noble.
After the bath, Aria submerged herself in the relentless pace of her life as a Luna. Between the physical exhaustion of training, the wearying tours of the palace, and the hours spent lost in the towering, dusty stacks of the Great Library, she tried to outrun the memory of the silver-haired girl.
But as the sun began to set, the shadows in the library seemed just a little longer than they were the day before.