Chapter 35: The Unraveling Thread
The hum of distant streetlights spilled through the narrow window, painting the room in soft shades of violet and gold. Aria's lashes fluttered against her cheeks as she stirred, the last wisps of sleep slipping from her grasp. Her body ached faintly, a reminder of the power that had surged through her veins not long ago.
Outside, the sky had darkened into a deep, aching purple—the kind that pressed heavily against the edges of the earth. The warmth from the earlier healing had faded, replaced by a biting chill that clung to her skin. Aria pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, blinking into the dimness, trying to remember how it had all unraveled so fast.
The room was silent—eerily so, save for the slow, steady breathing coming from across the room.
Selene.
Aria's heart gave a little lurch as her gaze found her. Selene sat by the window, half-illuminated by the streetlights, her posture rigid, her expression unreadable. The once-untouchable air about her had cracked; Aria could see it now, in the way Selene's hands curled slightly in her lap, in the way her shoulders rose and fell just a bit too quickly.
The tension between them was a living thing—an invisible thread stretched taut, ready to snap at the slightest provocation.
Aria's breath caught in her throat as she pushed the blanket aside and swung her legs over the bed, the cold floor stinging her bare feet. She hesitated, her heart hammering painfully, but some invisible force pulled her closer.
Selene's head snapped up the moment she moved.
For a heartbeat, neither of them breathed.
Selene rose from her chair slowly, like a storm gathering its fury on the horizon. There was no mistaking the intent in her steps—measured, predatory, yet impossibly gentle. Her gaze pinned Aria in place, stripping her down to the core of who she was.
Aria flushed, heat blooming across her cheeks as she instinctively took a half-step back.
A small, almost imperceptible smirk ghosted across Selene's lips at the reaction.
"Running already, little one?" Selene's voice was a low purr, laced with amusement, but there was something else beneath it—something raw and unguarded.
"I'm not running," Aria whispered, though the trembling in her hands betrayed her.
Selene's eyes glinted with a dangerous kind of affection. "No? Then why the blush?"
Aria's cheeks burned hotter, and she quickly looked down, fumbling with the hem of her oversized sweater. "It's… cold," she mumbled unconvincingly.
A soft chuckle escaped Selene as she closed the distance between them in a few strides. She reached out, fingers brushing lightly under Aria's chin, coaxing her to look up. The touch was feather-light, yet it sent a shudder racing down Aria's spine.
Selene studied her face with an intensity that made it hard to breathe.
"You've changed," she said, her voice low, reverent. Her thumb traced a slow, teasing path along Aria's jawline, making her shiver.
Aria swallowed hard. "I… I can feel it," she confessed. "Like something inside me is waking up. It's… overwhelming."
Selene's hand lingered a second longer before she pulled away, stepping back with a grace that made Aria ache for reasons she didn't understand. She moved toward the window again, her silhouette bathed in the bruised light of the street below.
"The power you felt," Selene began, voice soft but edged with steel, "was never meant to come all at once. You were meant to grow into it. Piece by piece. Painfully, slowly."
Aria hugged her arms around herself, feeling smaller than ever. "But why? Why like this?"
Selene's gaze met hers over her shoulder, dark and fierce. "Because you were made to break the world, Aria. To tear it apart… and build something new."
Aria's breath caught. The words sounded too vast, too impossible.
"I'm not strong enough," she said, voice cracking. "I'm just—"
"You are not 'just' anything." Selene's voice sharpened, cutting through the doubt. She turned fully toward her, the intensity of her presence almost overwhelming. "You are everything. You always have been."
Aria's chest tightened painfully. She wanted to believe her. She needed to. But fear gnawed at the edges of her hope.
"Then why does it feel like I'm falling apart?" she asked, the words spilling from her lips before she could stop them.
Selene crossed the room again, slower this time. There was a tenderness in her steps now, a deliberate gentleness that made Aria's heart stutter. She reached out and, without asking, tucked a stray lock of hair behind Aria's ear, her fingers grazing the flushed skin of Aria's cheek.
"You are falling apart," Selene murmured. "That's the point. You have to break, Aria. Only then can you rebuild yourself into what you were always meant to be."
Aria's lashes fluttered at the touch, her body trembling with the weight of Selene's nearness. The heat of her hand lingered even after she pulled away, like an imprint burned into her very skin.
"But…" Aria bit her lip, her voice small, hesitant. "Will you stay? While I… fall apart?"
The question hung between them, fragile and terrifying.
Selene's smile was slow, devastating, and infinitely tender. She leaned closer, until their noses almost touched, her breath warm against Aria's trembling lips.
"Who says I'm not falling, too?" Selene whispered.
Aria's heart skipped violently.
For a moment, she thought Selene might kiss her. The air between them was electric, humming with unsaid things. Selene's gaze dropped to Aria's mouth—barely, almost imperceptibly—but enough that Aria's whole body flamed with awareness.
Her knees wobbled.
Selene's smile deepened into something wicked, knowing exactly the effect she was having. She drew back a fraction, leaving Aria blinking up at her, dazed and flustered.
"Careful, little flame," Selene teased, her voice a delicious rasp against Aria's skin. "You burn too brightly."
Aria was certain she would melt right into the floor if she blushed any harder.
But before she could stammer out a response, Selene turned and strode back toward the window, the moment slipping through Aria's fingers like water. The air remained thick between them, saturated with everything they hadn't said.
The silence stretched again, but it was different now—charged, expectant.
Aria crossed the room with hesitant steps, stopping just behind Selene. She gazed out at the glittering cityscape, trying to anchor herself in something solid.
"Why me?" she asked again, softer this time.
Selene's profile was a study in shadows and light. When she finally answered, her voice was fierce with conviction.
"Because you are the only one who can change it all. And because… you were the only one I would ever trust to."
Aria closed her eyes, letting the words sink deep into the marrow of her bones. She wasn't ready. She wasn't sure she could be ready.
But standing here, so close to Selene that she could feel the heat of her, she realized something terrifying and wonderful all at once:
She wasn't alone.
The world could break.
She could fall.
And somehow, Selene would catch her—even if it meant falling too.
For the first time, Aria didn't run from it.
She leaned in, her forehead brushing lightly against Selene's shoulder, a silent promise neither of them had the courage to speak aloud.
The night deepened around them, thick with possibility.
And the thread between them—no longer unraveling—began, slowly, to weave itself into something new.