Chapter 34: The Gift Buried in Ashes
The wound was gone.
Selene hadn't moved in what felt like hours. Her breath was shallow, a quick staccato of pulses that didn't seem to belong to her body. The room was cold, and the heavy silence between them was more tangible than ever before, an oppressive presence, wrapping them both in an invisible shroud. Even the air seemed to hold its breath.
Her side—where Aria had healed her—was smooth, the skin unmarred. There was no trace of the pain, no sign of the battle, no evidence of the wound that had once been so deep. It was as if the wound had never existed. But the memories—the moments of agony, the endless hours spent bleeding, the overwhelming sense of loss—those remained. They echoed, reverberating through her bones, through the marrow of her soul. It was gone, but it wasn't gone, not entirely.
The world seemed different now, a new pulse thrumming through it. A pulse she could feel all the way through her body, as though Aria's light had somehow rewired the very fabric of her being. The moment had changed everything, and Selene wasn't sure how to reconcile what she had just experienced.
Aria had done something she shouldn't have been able to do.
The wound was gone, and with it—something else had been altered.
Aria, too, had changed.
And yet, Selene said nothing for a long time. She simply stared at the space between them, her pulse still thundering in her ears, trying to calm the storm inside her.
The silence stretched, pulling tight like a string about to snap.
Finally, her voice, raw and hoarse, broke through the stillness. "Why now?"
The question felt like it had been clawing its way out of her for hours, but Selene hadn't meant for it to escape. It was a whisper, barely there, but heavy with everything she couldn't say.
Aria, her breath shallow and uneven, turned toward her. Her eyes were wide, confused, the spark of something fragile flickering in the depths of her gaze. Her fingers trembled slightly as she pulled her knees closer, fidgeting in the silence that now surrounded them. "I don't know… I just… I saw you hurt. And I couldn't…" She paused, her voice faltering, and her eyes flicked down to her hands, as if trying to grasp the truth of what had just happened. "My chest—my hands—they just—"
The words trailed off, swallowed by the heaviness between them.
Selene's heart skipped a beat as a familiar warmth pulsed through her veins. A wave of something ancient and bitter spread through her, deep into her bones. It felt like a terrible beauty, and it was too much to ignore. She had seen Aria give everything before—everything for love, for the world, for her—but this time felt different. The golden light that had poured from Aria's hands had been a silent promise, a thing both fragile and potent.
"I would've died without you," Selene whispered, the words slipping from her lips before she could stop them. They felt like an offering, a sacrifice, a confession of something deeper than simple gratitude.
Aria's lips trembled, her eyes searching, her voice breaking the silence with a quiet plea. "You've said that before." Her tone was soft, almost apologetic, as if the words themselves were too heavy to speak aloud again.
Selene's gaze softened. She longed to say more—to tell Aria everything she could never say—but the truth was too painful. Too cruel. And what could she say, anyway? How could she explain that she had already died twice? That the world had already ended once before? That everything they had now—the second chance they had been given—wasn't enough to undo what had been lost?
She couldn't. She wouldn't. Not yet.
But something inside her twisted, a knot tightening in her chest. She needed to tell Aria. She wanted to so desperately, but not now. Not like this.
Selene closed her eyes, pushing the thoughts back.
Instead, she turned toward the window, where the pale moonlight bathed the room in a soft glow. She had to let the silence settle, let the weight of their shared moment sink in. But she couldn't escape the truth that lurked beneath the surface—the truth of what had happened.
The wound had healed. But so much more had been awakened.
It wasn't just about Aria's gift. It wasn't about healing or light or the beauty of what had just unfolded. It was about something darker. Something that stirred beneath the surface of the world they knew. The storm that was coming. And the truth that Aria, even now, didn't understand.
"Do you think I'm… different?" Aria's voice broke through, her words a fragile whisper, her face flushed with something vulnerable, something raw and unguarded.
Selene's gaze snapped back to her, her heart stuttering. Aria was looking at her now with an innocence that made Selene ache—a vulnerability so pure, it was impossible to ignore. She seemed smaller now, unsure, and it only made the pull between them more impossible to deny.
"Yes," Selene said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. "But not in the way you think."
Aria's brow furrowed slightly, confusion evident in the deep pools of her eyes. "What do you mean?"
Selene's lips curved into something faintly teasing, though the truth of it was too sharp for the smile to feel real. "You were always meant to break the world, Aria," she said, her tone low, like she was speaking to herself, as if she didn't quite believe the words herself. "But only to make it bloom again."
The silence stretched again, this time heavier, more suffocating.
Aria, in her innocence, in her uncertainty, didn't understand. She couldn't. Not yet. She didn't know the weight she carried, didn't understand the forces she had awakened within herself.
But Selene saw it—the potential, the power, the terrible beauty that would one day emerge.
And she had no idea how to prepare Aria for it.
For now, they would sit in the silence, both of them dancing around truths too dangerous to face.
Far away, in a place untouched by time, the Goddess of Love stood among the eternal blooms, her eyes burning with the weight of eternity. She had watched Aria burn in sacrifice, and for that act alone, she had given her a chance—a second chance—to return. But nothing came without consequence. And the consequence was only beginning to unfold.
But for now, Selene sat with Aria, watching her, feeling the weight of everything that had been and everything that would come. She didn't speak the words she wanted to say, not yet. She wouldn't.
Not until the storm was ready to break.
For now, the world would wait.
And the truth would be buried in ashes.