Chapter 127
**ARIA**
Everything had happened so quickly that my thoughts still felt scrambled, like leaves caught in a storm. One moment, I was in the quiet safety of my apartment, Rosalie’s voice brushing gently against my mind. The next, her scream sliced through the bond, then silence. My heart had lurched, my breath caught, and when Austin’s panicked command thundered through the walls, I knew something had gone terribly wrong.
And then the truth arrived, heavy and suffocating: Alex.
The name alone felt like a wound. He had been one of us—no, more than that, he had been a friend. A constant presence, patient and clever, the man who always seemed to have the right solution when things broke down or tensions ran high. I had laughed with him. Trusted him. Relied on him. And now I was expected to believe he had been the enemy all along? My heart refused it, but my head knew better.
The memory of Riley came back unbidden, sharp and painful. I had thought she was my closest friend, my sister in everything but blood. She had smiled at me, stood by me—and then she had poisoned me, schemed against the community, and stolen the life growing inside me. That betrayal had left scars that no healing could touch. And now, Alex.
I forced myself to push the memories away as I hurried down the corridor toward the infirmary. The polished stone floors stretched endlessly before me, their chill seeping into my bones through the thin soles of my shoes.
Torches cast a warm glow on the walls, but tonight it felt hollow, a parody of safety. My heart pounded against my ribs as I turned corner after corner, ignoring the whispers of people I passed.
Leila had wanted to come with me, but I had seen the strain etched into her features, the way her hand lingered protectively on her belly. Her daughter could arrive at any moment. She didn’t need this added stress. I promised her I would tell her everything.
When I pushed open the infirmary door, the scent of herbs and antiseptic filled my lungs. The room was dim, the curtains drawn against the winter sunlight, and Rosalie lay propped up on a cot, her blonde hair disheveled, her skin pale but her eyes blazing with frustration.
“Aria,” she said the moment she saw me, her voice hoarse. “I tried. I swear I tried to stop him. The wards slipped through my fingers as if they weren’t even there. He was shielded, cloaked in protections I couldn’t unravel. And then…” Her voice broke, her hands clenching around the blanket. “I failed.”
I crossed the room quickly and sat beside her, taking her hand. “No. You didn’t fail. You gave us the truth. You saved us.”
Her eyes shimmered, and I knew she didn’t believe me. Her pride as a witch, as our protector, had been bruised too deeply. I squeezed her fingers, grounding both of us.
“Who could have protected him like that?” she whispered. “I’ve seen strong wards before, but nothing like this. It was… ancient. Old magic. And he carried it like armor.”
A shiver ran down my spine. I thought of Alaric, of the cold certainty in his words when he had spoken to me in the forest, unseen yet everywhere. Could he have been the one? Or was there someone else, someone hidden deeper still?
“I don’t know,” I admitted softly. “But I hope Adam, Austin, and the others will find out. They have to.”
Her gaze dropped to our joined hands. “And what if they don’t? What if Alex never talks? What if we never understand why he did it?”
The thought twisted something inside me. “Then at least we’ll know who he was,” I said after a moment. “We’ll know he chose his side. And maybe that’s all we can ask.”
But even as I spoke, my chest ached. I didn’t want to believe it had all been a lie. I wanted to believe that somewhere, deep down, Alex had been sincere. That he hadn’t spent years beside us, helping us, laughing with us, only to see us as pawns.
It was easier to believe that Riley had always been rotten inside. But Alex? He had been different. I had seen kindness in him, had felt his loyalty. And now… had that, too, been just another mask?
I swallowed hard, blinking against the sting in my eyes. “I don’t want to believe he hated us all this time. I don’t want to think every moment we shared was just a game to him. Maybe he thought he was doing the right thing.
Maybe he convinced himself this was necessary. I don’t know. But if there’s any chance that part of him was real…” My voice cracked, and I let out a shaky laugh. “I need to hold on to that. Otherwise I’ll break.”
Rosalie reached up and touched my cheek. “You’re stronger than you think, Aria. You’ve survived betrayals before. You’ll survive this one, too.”
Her words should have comforted me, but instead they reminded me of how tired I was of surviving betrayals. My gaze drifted to the window, where a sliver of winter light had slipped past the curtain. Outside, the courtyard was blanketed in frost, the branches of the bare trees etched white against the sky. It looked peaceful, serene. But I knew better. Beneath that stillness, shadows stirred.
The community felt different now, less like a sanctuary and more like a fortress. Every face I passed in the corridors seemed like a mask I couldn’t read, every smile a possible lie. Alex had proven that even the people we
trusted most could hide knives behind their backs.
I tightened my grip on Rosalie’s hand. “We’ll get through this,” I whispered, more to myself than to her. “We have to.”
She nodded, though doubt lingered in her eyes.
For a long while, we sat in silence. The steady rhythm of her breathing, the faint creak of the infirmary walls, the distant murmur of voices in the hall—everything felt magnified, fragile, as though the whole world might shatter with one wrong move.
And maybe it already had.
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