Chapter 43: Unwrapped Silence
The night pressed against the windows, thick and ink - dark, a silence so heavy it rang in Aria's ears. Selene stood by the door, motionless, her form half - shadowed in the pale moonlight. A single crack of a branch outside had frozen them both. Now, Selene listened with eerie stillness, the tension in her shoulders not fear — but precision. Readiness.
Aria's heart thudded painfully in her chest. Her breath came shallow, barely audible, but inside her, a different storm brewed — not panic, not danger, but a raw, unwelcome heat. Selene's body radiated cold, sharper than the night air, but it wasn't distance that made Aria shiver. It was the unbearable gravity between them, the way Selene could command a room without speaking, without touching her at all.
When the silence outside finally settled again, Selene moved. Not with relief, but with quiet certainty. She stepped away from the door like a predator deciding there was no need to hunt — yet. Her eyes, glacial and unreadable, flicked to Aria.
Aria exhaled, trembling, her adrenaline fading into something softer, something worse.
"Come," Selene said, her voice smooth as ice and just as cutting.
Aria obeyed before thinking. Her legs carried her forward into Selene's shadow. Their shoulders brushed, just barely, but the contact was enough to spark through her body like a live wire. She bit back a gasp, swallowing against the sudden dryness in her throat.
Selene didn't comment, but her mouth curved slightly at the corner. She turned and ascended the staircase, each step unhurried, her long coat shifting with every movement like some dark, trailing flame. Aria followed, her eyes drawn — unwillingly, maddeningly — to the sway of Selene's hips, to the subtle flex of her muscles, to the silver gleam of the blade strapped to her thigh.
Up close, she smelled faintly of snow and ozone.
At the landing, Selene paused without looking back. "Are you afraid of the dark, little flame?" she asked, her tone teasing, edged with amusement.
Aria flushed instantly, a fierce rush of heat surging to her face. "No."
Selene turned just enough to glance at her, the smirk widening into something slower, crueler. "Then why do you look like you're about to bolt?"
"I don't," Aria lied, arms crossing too tight over her chest.
"Mm." Selene leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper as she passed close to Aria's ear. "You lie badly."
The breath she exhaled against Aria's neck was cool, sharp, and maddening. Aria's knees nearly gave out.
They reached the bedroom, old dust curling through the moonlight. The bed was large, untouched for years, the sheets pale with age. Selene looked it over, then let her eyes settle on Aria again.
"There's only one bed," she said, expression unreadable except for the faint flick of a brow. "You'll have to share."
Aria didn't respond. Couldn't. Her mouth had gone dry again.
Selene's presence filled the room like water flooding a space too small to contain it. She moved closer — not sudden, not aggressive, but deliberate. Aria backed up reflexively, until the cold wood of the dresser met her spine.
Selene stopped just inches away, her arms bracing on either side of the dresser without touching her. The space between them pulsed with tension, thick and electric.
"You're shivering," Selene said softly, eyes narrowed.
"It's cold," Aria said quickly, her voice thin. Too fast.
Selene smiled with her teeth. "No. It's not."
She leaned closer, not touching, only letting Aria feel her — feel her magic humming like frost against skin, her gaze searing like a slow flame in the dark. Aria clenched her thighs without realizing. Her pulse thundered in her ears.
"You feel it, don't you?" Selene whispered. "That craving under your skin. That awakening. Your bloodline remembering what it's made of."
Aria's lips parted, a sound caught in her throat. She didn't know what Selene meant, but her body did. Her chest ached. Her belly fluttered. Her core throbbed in a way that was terrifying and wrong and too right to stop.
Selene tilted her head slightly, like she was reading the shifting lines of Aria's expression, the tremble of her breath. Her fingers — cool, elegant — lifted to touch Aria's chin, tilting her face back toward hers.
"Don't look away," Selene murmured. "I like watching you fall apart."
Aria's breath hitched.
Selene didn't kiss her.
Instead, she let the threat of a kiss hang between them — like a sword unsheathed but not yet plunged. Her lips hovered near Aria's jaw, her breath cool as snowdrift, and it was torture.
"You want me to kiss you," Selene whispered, almost tender. "But not because you understand it yet. Not because your mind says so. It's your body, your magic — it remembers mine. And it wants."
Aria made a small, helpless noise. She hated how real it felt, how her body moved without permission, aching toward Selene's cold.
Selene chuckled low, the sound sliding like silk along Aria's spine. Then, as if she'd grown bored with the closeness — or had gotten what she wanted — she stepped back.
Aria nearly collapsed forward. Her knees wobbled, and her hands flew out to brace against the dresser.
Selene turned away with a casual sweep of her coat. "Get some rest. You'll need it."
Aria didn't answer.
She stood there, dazed, the heat between her legs now maddening, an ache that refused to fade. Her thighs pressed tightly together, trying to contain it, but Selene's words still echoed in her bones.
She's going to ache for me. And she was right.
Still breathless, Aria gathered what composure she had left and followed Selene to the bed. She summoned fresh linens from her pocket dimension with a flick — magic sharp and clumsy under the weight of her distraction. The old bedding vanished, replaced with crisp white sheets, heavy and too clean.
Selene helped without comment, quiet and efficient. She didn't touch Aria again.
She didn't need to.
When they were done, Aria slipped beneath the covers like a ghost, curling at the farthest edge of the bed. Her body still hummed with every sensation Selene had pulled from her, every touch not given, every look too much.
Selene slid in beside her, barely shifting the mattress. Her body radiated cold like a second presence, a chill that crept under the blankets and ghosted over Aria's skin. It wasn't unpleasant — it was torture.
Selene didn't say goodnight. She didn't reach for her.
But her closeness was enough. Aira lay in the dark, burning, her body pulsing with the aftershocks of want, her core clenching with every remembered breath. Her thighs squeezed together again. It did nothing.
She stole a glance toward Selene, whose eyes were closed but not sleeping. Her breathing was too steady, too controlled.
Aira swallowed hard, fighting a whimper. She wanted to scream. She wanted Selene to touch her. She wanted to understand what this was, and she didn't want to understand it at all.
Her fingers curled in the blanket. Her legs shifted under the sheets, seeking relief that wouldn't come. Her lips parted in silence.
Selene had unraveled her without a single kiss.
And Selene hadn't even begun.