Chapter 36: The Weight of Silence
The night was as still as the breath before a storm.
Aria stood by the tall window, one hand resting against the cold glass. The city below stretched outward in endless constellations — distant lights that shimmered like fallen stars trying to remember the sky. Her reflection ghosted against the glass: eyes haunted, hair tousled, jaw clenched in stubborn silence. The ache in her chest had settled, not like a wound healing, but like a bruise she'd pressed too hard, again and again.
It had been five days since Selene's blood dried on her fingers.
Five days since light had exploded from her body — wild, golden, terrifying. Since her voice had cracked the silence and summoned something divine. It hadn't been beautiful, not really. It had been raw. Bright. Brutal. Five days since Selene opened her eyes with a gasp, and Aria forgot how to breathe.
She hadn't slept much since then.
The energy inside her never went quiet. It hummed behind her sternum like a power line ready to snap, a current crawling through her bones. Some days it made her feel invincible. Other days it made her feel hollowed out, as if she were only the echo of a girl trying too hard to understand what she'd become.
Behind her, the room stayed quiet — but not empty. She could feel Selene's presence without looking. Like gravity. Or moonlight. Constant, quiet, inescapable.
"Can't sleep again?"
Selene's voice was flame in the dark, low and warm and maddening. Aria didn't flinch, but her shoulders tensed before she relaxed them again.
"The quiet's too loud," Aria murmured, fingers trailing down the pane like she could catch the city's heartbeat if she tried hard enough.
Selene padded closer, barefoot, her presence heatless but overwhelming all the same. Her body radiated cool calm, like the breath of winter through an open window — sharp, soft, and impossible to ignore. She stopped just behind Aria, not touching, but close enough that Aria could feel her. Every molecule of her own skin seemed to lean backward, pulled like a tide.
"You've barely spoken to me since that night," Selene said, quiet but pointed. "I'm starting to think you're avoiding me."
"I'm not." Aria's voice was too fast, too defensive. She winced.
Selene arched a brow that Aria could feel, even without turning. "Right. That's why you've been a shadow in your own skin."
Aria exhaled hard through her nose and finally glanced over her shoulder. "I just… don't know what to say."
"That would be a first," Selene teased, stepping forward.
Aria turned to face her, mouth open to snap back — but the smirk on Selene's face hit her like a pulse of heat. Her heart fluttered, her cheeks ignited. "I — That's not —"
"You're adorable when you're flustered."
"I'm not flustered."
"You're blushing."
"I'm not blushing!"
Selene tilted her head. "You're blushing more now."
Aria groaned and turned away, hoping the shadows would hide the color rising up her throat. Selene's laughter was quiet, restrained, but the warmth in it made Aria's stomach twist.
Selene stepped beside her, the brush of their arms subtle but charged. "Five days," she said softly. "And you still haven't asked what happened to you."
Aria stared at the window again, though her focus had drifted far from the city lights. "Would you have told me?"
Selene was quiet long enough that Aria thought she'd refuse to answer. But then, "No. Probably not."
Aria gave a dry laugh. "That's reassuring."
"You weren't ready."
"And now?"
"Still debatable."
"I'm not some delicate —"
"I know you're not," Selene interrupted gently. "But power like yours… it wakes slowly. Or all at once. Either way, it never comes quietly."
Aria turned to her again, her voice sharper now. "You can't pretend none of it mattered. I healed you. I felt you. And you're acting like it was some… accident."
Selene's expression shifted. A crack in the calm. "It mattered."
Aria stepped in, their faces inches apart. "Then stop acting like I'm just your responsibility."
"You stopped being my responsibility the second you brought me back from the edge."
Selene's voice was low — raw and reverent. It wasn't a confession. It was a surrender.
Her fingers brushed a loose strand from Aria's face, the back of her hand ghosting along her jaw. "You don't even realize what you've done to me."
Aria swallowed, pulse hammering in her throat. "Selene…"
"I've built walls my entire life. Not to keep others out — but to keep me in. Contained. Controlled. And you —" Selene's gaze flicked to her lips, then back to her eyes. "You tore them down like they were made of paper."
The heat between them grew unbearable.
Aria stepped closer. Her chest brushed Selene's. Every breath dragged fire through her veins. "I didn't mean to —"
"But you did."
Their foreheads almost touched now. The air between them felt electric, every heartbeat a thunderclap.
"You think I'm scared of your power?" Selene whispered. "I'm not. I'm scared of the way I need you."
Aria's breath caught. Her knees went weak. "You don't —"
Selene kissed her.
It wasn't soft. It wasn't polite. It was claiming.
Their lips collided like a storm meeting the sea — wild, hungry, and anchored in something ancient. Aria's fingers tangled in Selene's shirt, pulling her close, desperate for more. Selene's hands settled on her waist, cool fingers dragging fire across her skin through thin fabric.
When they broke apart, Aria's breath hitched, dizzy and breathless. "That was —"
"Long overdue," Selene finished, her voice a little rough now. Her eyes had gone dark, dangerous. "Don't pretend you didn't want it."
Aria licked her lips. "Maybe I did."
Selene smirked again. "That sounded suspiciously like a yes."
"I hate you," Aria whispered, and then leaned forward to kiss her again, softer this time. Lingering.
Selene hummed into her mouth, amused. "Liar."
They rested against each other for a beat. The quiet no longer felt heavy — it was full, rich, alive with something unsaid but not unknown.
Eventually, Aria pulled back slightly, her fingers still curled in Selene's clothes. "So what now?"
Selene's eyes flicked downward, then back up, fierce and unwavering. "Now you stop running from yourself."
Aria's smile was shaky, but real. "Then I rise."
Selene's gaze sharpened with something almost proud. She brushed her thumb along Aria's cheek, then tapped her nose with maddening gentleness. "About time."
Aria's eyes narrowed. "You're insufferable."
"And you're obsessed with me."
"Delusional."
"Mm. Tell that to your lips."
Aria elbowed her, but lightly, grinning now. "Don't flatter yourself."
"Oh, I don't need to. You do it for me."
Aria tried to scowl, but the smile tugging at her mouth ruined the attempt.
Selene's voice dipped again, teasing. "I still think you blush too easily."
"I still think you talk too much."
Selene kissed her once more — quick, almost lazy — and then murmured against her lips, "Then shut me up."
Aria did.
When they finally pulled apart, Aria rested her forehead against Selene's shoulder, a soft exhale leaving her lungs like she'd been holding her breath for a year.
The silence between them wasn't silence anymore. It was a promise. A pulse.
Outside, the wind brushed the windows, hinting at the storm that hadn't yet arrived.
Inside, Aria stood at the edge of something vast and burning and new. She was no longer a girl clinging to control.
She was light and fracture. She was rising.
And she wasn't alone anymore.