Aria's POV
The dirty mop water splashes across my hands as someone's expensive shoe crashes down on my fingers.
"Move faster, Aria. You're blocking the hallway."
I look up at Kenji Sato—my fiancé—and swallow the pain shooting through my crushed hand. His perfect face shows nothing. No sorry. No care. Just annoyance that I'm in his way.
"Sorry," I whisper, pulling my hand back. Two fingers are already turning purple.
"Don't apologize. Just be useful for once." Kenji drops a thick folder on the wet floor next to me. "My assignment is due tomorrow. Type it up tonight."
My heart sinks. "But Kenji, tomorrow is the Grand Contracting Ceremony. I need to prepare—"
"You?" He laughs, and it sounds like breaking glass. "You're F-rank, Aria. The lowest of the low. You'll never contract a spirit anyway. At least make yourself useful by helping someone who actually matters."
Other students walk past us in the hallway, dressed in their ceremony robes. They're all excited, talking about which spirits they hope to contract. None of them look at me. I'm invisible. The academy's charity case. The girl who doesn't belong.
"Kenji, please..." My voice cracks. "I worked three years to earn my spot in the ceremony. Master Sato promised if I—"
A sharp laugh cuts me off. Yumi Tanaka—my roommate and best friend since freshman year—appears next to Kenji. Her arm wraps around his waist like she owns him.
"Oh, Aria." Yumi's voice drips with fake sweetness. "You actually think you'll contract something? Honey, even the weakest spirits run away from you. You're pathetic."
My throat closes up. Yumi knows everything about me. How I cry myself to sleep sometimes. How I save my food money to buy ceremony supplies. How much tomorrow means to me. She's my best friend. My only friend.
So why does she look at me like I'm trash?
"Yumi..." I start, but she's already pulling Kenji away.
"Come on, babe. Let's go practice for tomorrow. Unlike some people, we actually have a chance at contracting something powerful." She glances back at me. "Oh, and Aria? You missed a spot near the stairs. Wouldn't want Master Sato to be disappointed in you again."
They walk away together, and I hear Yumi's giggle echo down the hall. Kenji's hand slides lower on her back.
I stare at the dirty water in my bucket and feel hot tears building behind my eyes. But I don't cry. I haven't cried in front of anyone since I was five years old.
Since the night my parents died.
Since the Sato family found me and took me in.
I pick up the mop and keep scrubbing. The memory plays in my head like it always does—Master Sato's kind face when he found me alone and scared. "Don't worry, child. You're family now. We'll take care of you."
Seventeen years later, I'm still trying to repay that kindness.
Even if it means scrubbing floors while everyone else prepares for their dreams.
Even if it means typing Kenji's homework when I should be studying.
Even if it means being called worthless by the boy I'm supposed to marry.
The Sato family saved me. I owe them everything. Master Sato reminds me of that every single day.
Three hours later, I'm still typing Kenji's assignment in the empty library. My injured fingers throb with each keystroke. It's almost midnight when I finally finish.
My phone buzzes. A text from Kenji.
"Change of plans. The ceremony got moved up. Meet me at the Old Shrine at midnight. Don't be late. This is important."
My heart jumps. Moved up? Tonight?
I grab my bag and run. The Old Shrine is at the edge of campus, past the training grounds. It takes me fifteen minutes at full sprint. My lungs burn. My uniform is soaked with sweat. But if Kenji says it's important, it must be about the ceremony.
Maybe Master Sato arranged something special for me after all.
Maybe I'll finally get my chance to prove I'm not worthless.
The shrine appears through the trees, and I slow down, catching my breath. It's old and crumbling, surrounded by stone lanterns that haven't been lit in years.
Except tonight, they're glowing.
Red light flickers between the trees. Not normal lantern light. This is darker. Colder.
Something in my chest tightens.
I push through the last branches and freeze.
The shrine courtyard is covered in symbols. Dark red symbols painted across the stones in a massive circle. Candles surround it—hundreds of them—all burning with that same wrong red light.
This isn't a contracting ceremony.
This is something else.
"Kenji?" My voice comes out small and scared.
Figures step from the shadows. Not just Kenji. Master Sato. Yumi. A dozen clan elders in ceremonial robes. They form a circle around me, blocking every exit.
Kenji's face is completely different now. Cold. Empty. Like he's wearing a mask.
"Took you long enough," he says flatly. "I was worried you'd be smart enough to run."
Ice floods my veins. "What's going on? What is this?"
Master Sato steps forward, and there's no kindness in his face anymore. Just cold calculation. "This, Aria, is the reason we kept you alive all these years."
Yumi giggles from somewhere to my left. "She really doesn't understand. Oh my God, this is even better than I thought."
My hands start shaking. "I don't... I don't understand..."
"You're not here for a ceremony, Aria." Kenji walks closer, and I stumble backward toward the circle. "You're here to be the sacrifice."
The word hits me like a punch.
Sacrifice.
"The blood of a Nakamura is rare," Master Sato continues, his voice echoing in the shrine. "Perfect for opening gates that should stay closed. Your parents tried to hide what you are. But we knew. We've always known."
Nakamura? That's not my name. My name is Aria Russo. My parents were—
"We killed them ourselves," Master Sato says, reading my face. "Your real parents. The massacre seventeen years ago wasn't an accident. We needed you young. Moldable. Broken."
The world tilts sideways.
No.
No, that can't be true.
Kenji grabs my arm and drags me toward the circle. I try to fight, but he's so much stronger. "Sorry, Aria. Nothing personal. But your blood is worth more than your life ever was."
"Kenji, please!" I'm crying now, clawing at his hands. "We're engaged! You said you loved—"
"Loved you?" He throws me into the circle, and I crash against stone. My ribs crack. Pain explodes through my chest. "I never loved you. You were always just the tool. The convenient little sacrifice who'd do anything for scraps of affection."
The circle activates.
Dark energy erupts from the symbols, and I scream as my blood is pulled out through my skin. It flows through the patterns, feeding something. Summoning something.
"No! NO! PLEASE!" I'm begging, but nobody's listening.
"The Seraphiel contract!" Kenji holds up a glowing orb—the angelic spirit I earned. MY spirit. "Transfer it to me! Use her death as the catalyst!"
White-hot agony tears through my chest as the spirit bond is ripped from my soul and forced into Kenji. I can't breathe. Can't think. Can only scream.
Then the circle explodes.
Black chains erupt from the ground—massive, writhing, screaming with power that makes my bones vibrate. They wrap around my broken body and pull.
DOWN.
Through the stone.
Through reality itself.
I'm falling through darkness and can't tell which way is up. The chains burn where they touch my skin, marking me, claiming me.
I land hard on black rock, and the air is wrong here. Too hot. Too heavy. Smells like sulfur and death.
Where am I?
Footsteps echo across stone.
I can barely lift my head. Blood pours from my mouth. Everything hurts. I'm dying.
A shadow falls across me, and a voice like silk and nightmares speaks:
"Well, well. What do we have here?"
I force my eyes open and immediately wish I hadn't.
A man stands over me. No—not a man. Something else wearing a man's shape. He's impossibly beautiful with silver-white hair and eyes that glow crimson like burning coals. Black chains move across his skin like living tattoos.
The power radiating from him makes me want to curl up and die.
"How... fascinating." He crouches down, studying me like I'm an interesting insect. "They tried to sacrifice you to summon me. But your blood..." His smile is terrifying. "You're a Nakamura. Your bloodline doesn't sacrifice to demons, little girl."
His finger tilts my chin up, and I'm too weak to resist.
"Your bloodline dominates them."
Those crimson eyes bore into mine, and I feel something in my chest crack open—something that's been locked away my entire life.
"So tell me, dying child." His smile widens, showing too-sharp teeth. "Do you want revenge?"
My lips move before my brain can catch up.
"Yes."
The word comes out as a broken whisper, but it echoes in this dark place like thunder.
The demon's smile becomes something beautiful and terrible.
"Then let's make a deal."