The pull did not fade with sleep.
If anything, it grew teeth in the quiet hours.
Aria learned that before dawn, when she woke with her heart racing and the echo of something ancient humming beneath her ribs. It wasn't the sharp jolt of a nightmare. It wasn't the suffocating grip of fear.
It was something far more unsettling.
Recognition.
Not hers alone.
Something recognizing her.
She lay still, every muscle held in a fragile kind of stillness, as if even breathing too deeply might disturb whatever had settled inside her. Pale morning light crept slowly through the tall windows, washing the ceiling in muted gold. The world outside was quiet, suspended between night and day, but inside her, something stirred with deliberate awareness.
