A chamber of ancient stone and blooming crimson flowers, deep in the heart of the forest. The air pulses with magic, thick with heat and shadow. At the center stands Aria—silent, watching, radiant like a flame in a storm.
They all gather around her.
Selene is closest, one hand resting on Aria's waist, eyes devouring her. Shadows coil around her fingers like lovers. Lys stands stiffly behind Aria, trembling with the need to speak, the need to touch. Elara kneels before her, reverent, worshipful, her forehead resting lightly against Aria's thigh. Nova paces, feral, golden eyes locked on Aria like a predator that's already claimed its prey. And Iris, as always, leans in silence near the wall—but her eyes burn with words she never says.
Aria: (softly)
You're all looking at me like I'm the answer to something you've been dying to ask.
Selene: (smirking, possessive)
You are. The answer. The question. The reason I stopped pretending there was anything more sacred than the curve of your mouth when you lie.
(She kisses Aria then—slow, deep, bruising. A claim, not a request. Aria doesn't resist. She tastes like dusk and ruin.)
Lys: (whispers, barely able to speak)
You ruin me. Every time I look at you, I forget how to breathe. And I keep choosing that.
Elara: (murmuring against Aria's leg)
I'd let the world burn if it meant your fingers would brush mine once more. Say the word, and I'll kneel for eternity.
Nova: (growls, stepping forward)
She doesn't want your worship, Elara. She wants devotion that bleeds. She wants hunger. Aria… tell me to tear down heaven and I will—with your name in my mouth and your kiss on my knife.
(Nova grabs Aria by the jaw, leans in—almost kisses her—then stops. Teeth bared in frustration, worship, need.)
Aria: (smiling faintly, cruelly tender)
Is that all I am to you? An obsession? A sickness?
Iris: (voice low and sharp)
You're the gravity pulling us apart, and the gravity holding us together. I hate you. I crave you. You've ruined us all.
Selene: (her hand slides up Aria's spine)
She doesn't care. Do you, Aria? You love being the center of this—of us. Of every unraveling we've become.
(Aria lets her head fall back, eyes closed, drunk on their devotion. Her voice is silk dipped in poison.)
Aria:
I didn't ask for this.
(She opens her eyes—gleaming, cold, burning.)
Aria:
I became this. And you followed. Each of you, moths to a flame that never promised to be kind.
(She turns slowly, touching each of them—fingers trailing over skin, over power, over open wounds only she knows how to press.)
Aria: (to Lys)
You'll break for me.
Aria: (to Elara)
You'll bleed for me.
Aria: (to Nova)
You'll burn for me.
Aria: (to Iris)
You'll hate me… and still come back.
Aria: (to Selene, finally, with a twisted smile)
And you… you'll love me even after I destroy you.
(They move closer. Breathless. Desperate. Possessed. One by one, they kiss her—different kinds of love, all dark, all consuming. And Aria stands in the center of it all, sovereign of their ruin, the bloom of crimson chaos they can't escape.)