Chapter 21: The Thread That Never Was
Day Five
Night pressed gently against the windows, cloaking the city in a breathless hush. No screams. No snarls. Only a stillness that didn't feel like peace—
It felt like waiting.
Selene sat on the edge of the couch, composed as ever. Pale skin, silver hair, clean bandages now wrapped tight around her side. The bleeding had stopped, but Aria knew better—
Selene was still hurting.
She just didn't show it.
Aria, on the other hand, couldn't stop moving.
She sat beside her, fingers tangled in her lap, eyes flicking between the wound and Selene's face, searching for pain the way others might search for stars.
"It should've been me," Aria whispered.
Selene's voice came sharp. "Don't say that."
"But I—"
"No."
Sharper this time. Final.
Selene turned, and for once, her gaze fractured just enough to let something real slip through.
"I would bleed a thousand times," she said, "before I let anything touch you."
⸻
Aria's throat closed up.
She reached forward, almost afraid to break the moment. "Let me help this time," she murmured. "Let me do something."
Selene hesitated. But Aria was already unwrapping the bandage with careful fingers.
And then—
The world paused.
⸻
A light bloomed from Aria's palm.
Pale gold, soft as warmth after frost, spiraling in delicate ribbons that shimmered against Selene's skin.
Selene went still.
Aria didn't understand it—only felt it. Something in her unlocked without permission, without thought. A pulse of something older than memory. Deeper than logic. Born of fear, maybe—
Or maybe love.
The light hovered—then sank into the wound.
Selene inhaled sharply.
The torn flesh closed beneath Aria's touch. The pain melted away.
Blood vanished like it had never been there.
⸻
They sat in silence.
The only sound was Aria's breath—
Then Selene's voice, low, almost reverent:
"…That wasn't supposed to happen."
Aria blinked. "What… what did I just do?"
Selene stared at her. Not like she was afraid—
But like she was remembering something that hadn't happened yet.
"You never awakened healing before," she said slowly. "Not last time."
Aria's heart stumbled. "Last time?"
Selene opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
Whatever answer she held behind her eyes—she wasn't ready to say.
Not yet.
⸻
Something had shifted.
Not just in Aria.
But in the thread that held them together.
A thread that wasn't supposed to exist anymore.
And yet—here it was.
Unbroken.
Unwritten.
Refusing to let go.