"Are you sure?" Aria asked her again with a worried expression on her face. Her voice was softer now, uncertain, carrying the weight of doubt that had been growing in her chest since the conversation started. "Maybe...maybe it hasn’t..."
"I’m sure, Aria!" Liora cut her off before she could finish, her voice sharp as a blade. She tossed her long and fuller red hair to her back in a sweeping motion, her chin lifted in subtle defiance as she spoke, lifting her head subtly with pride, like a queen refusing to be questioned. There was something too effortless in her dismissal—too fast, too polished.
"I would know if I am! What does it matter anyway?" she asked, her tone hardening. A slightly annoyed expression flickered over her face as she looked at Aria, trying to mask the deeper tension in her eyes. She could see Aria faltering, struggling to keep something hidden—something important. And it was obvious, far too obvious.
’It’s not like there’s another Vampire King that I can seduce to kill the one you already had in your bed!’ she thought to herself coldly, tightening her gaze on Aria, sharp as a dagger. Her arms folded tightly around her chest, her nails digging faintly into her arms as if holding herself together while she waited. The air between them thickened.
She waited for Aria to speak. She watched. She stared.
And still, Aria said nothing.
The silence continued, stretching uncomfortably long. It twisted in the space between them like a rope drawing tighter.
Liora finally couldn’t take it anymore.
"You slept with him and I already have my freedom!" she burst out, words sharp, eyes blazing. "I also have enough money and have employed enough guards!" Her voice dropped as she whispered the other half under her breath, almost as if saying it too loud would strip away the power those words carried. The desperation was there, tucked behind her indignation.
"We can even sneak out together in the dead of the night once you visit me in the city! We’ll be free of him!" Liora said, this time with firm conviction. Meaning every word. Her eyes gleamed with purpose. Her mouth set in a determined line. Her fists clenched by her sides. After they escaped, they could find other hunters’ families. They could band together. They could rebuild and strike when the time was right.
The plan was crude. It was unpolished. But it was all they had left.
"Morovr with the blood tournament still hanging over your head, the faster we escape the better!" Liora told her, her voice deepening into seriousness, her brow furrowed in genuine worry. Her words were like stone—solid, unshakable. Her tone left no space for debate.
Aria didn’t move. Didn’t flinch. She just stood there, still, unmoving. Her expression was ugly, twisted in internal conflict. Her gaze dropped to the ground, her brows pulled down in a deep frown that furrowed the space between her eyes. Her lips tightened. She looked like she was collapsing inward, folding under something heavy.
It wasn’t until Liora snapped at her that Aria jerked up, startled, as though dragged out of a trance.
"What is it! Spit it out! You clearly have something to say!" Liora snapped, her voice sharp with exasperation, her patience threadbare. Her hands had balled into fists. Her posture was stiff. She had already begun learning sword techniques, taking lessons with sweaty palms and aching arms, but she wasn’t delusional. She knew it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Not really. Not when it mattered most.
Still, she was determined. Even a small blade could kill, given the chance.
She had slept with men. Many of them. Because of the heat. It wasn’t her choice, not really. It was her body. That sick itch that wouldn’t go away. A part of her that wasn’t her had wanted it.
But if it meant gaining something—money, freedom, protection—then she would do it again. Without hesitation. Without shame.
’If it’s about you sleeping with Zyren, then I couldn’t care less!’ Liora thought to herself, already preparing the sentence to hurl at Aria’s face, about to say it—when suddenly and unexpectedly, Aria finally opened her mouth to speak.
"Zyren said I could get an ability!" she said.
The words came out barely audible, almost drowned by the heavy silence between them. Her voice was small, uncertain, yet heavy with something that could not be ignored.
Liora blinked, stunned.
"What?" she asked, frowning deeply, her voice quieter now but far more focused. Her entire body leaned forward slightly, eyes narrowing. She couldn’t have heard right.
But then she heard Aria again—this time much louder.
"Zyren said that if I did a bonding ritual with him I would get an ability!" Aria said.
The words hit like a blow.
The air changed. It thickened, weighted with disbelief, dread, and something like betrayal.
Liora was confident that she had heard wrong. She had to have heard wrong. But when she looked into Aria’s eyes and saw nothing but unwavering seriousness staring back at her, she knew.
She was dead serious.
"This...this is a joke!" Liora finally managed to spit out. Her voice cracked slightly, like her belief in everything around her was unraveling. But Aria’s reaction only deepened the wound.
"No!" Aria shook her head harder than before. Her hair swayed with the force of it. "The bonding ritual is by midnight!" she added, her throat tight, swallowing hard as if trying to keep herself from gagging on the words.
"Are you mad?" she screamed. "You are mad!!! A bonding ritual with Zyren—the man we have to kill!!" Her voice grew higher with each word, strained from the sheer pressure of her fury.
"He’s the enemy!! He’s your enemy!" she cried, voice rising, roaring over Aria’s gestures for her to quiet down.
"A bonding ritual for vampires! He’s not even a werewolf so you can’t even be mated!"
"All it’ll be is a slave ritual that forces you to serve him!"
"The healer in charge assured me that such a thing wouldn’t happen so there’s..." Aria tried to interrupt, her voice trembling.
"A vampire healer!" Liora cut her off again with venom. "You trust vampires now!" she barked, the sound vicious.
"...our father might be dead but our family hunted them!"
The words crashed into Aria with all the weight of truth.
But Aria had had enough.
"Listen Liora!" she snapped, her voice full of force and fury. "This is an ability!! Do you know what that means? Moreover! I did some research of my own... if it’s a bonding ritual then it would simply be that our souls would be connected. Not unlike that of werewolves and their mates. Nothing more and nothing less!"
Her hands were clenched by her sides. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. Her throat was tight and dry from shouting. But the words had been spoken—and she would not take them back.
"And you think you would be able to kill him with such a chain around your neck!" Liora sneered, her voice low and cutting.
"For all we know by the time the bond had been made your body might no longer be your own!"
But Aria didn’t back down. Her eyes narrowed, her lips set in a line of frustrated determination.
"...it’s a good thing I’m not alone. I can hold him down while you do the killing!" she said, her voice steady despite the tremble that threatened her composure. She made it clear: if she couldn’t kill him, then Liora would finish the job.
That struck something in Liora. Something cold and approving.
It wasn’t forgiveness. But it was enough.
She nodded, breathing out slowly. Her expression smoothed slightly, though the fury still simmered in her eyes. Her posture softened. Not relaxed—but accepting. Reluctantly so.
She was still pissed. But she was also calculating.
To Aria, it looked like Liora had accepted what she said. That the matter was over. That the storm had passed.
But if only she could hear what Liora was really thinking.
’If somehow this ritual works and she gets an ability... then that means I’ll also be able to get one if I can get my hands on the ritual!’ she thought to herself, mind whirling with possibilities.
Power. That’s what this was really about.
"If it fails then..." she thought, giving a mental shrug.
She moved closer, steps quiet but firm, and sat down on the chair beside Aria’s bed. Not far from her. Not too close.
Aria breather in and then breathed out a long and dragged sigh as she focused her face on Liora the only family she had left as she spike next.
"We only have each other left! I know you care about me but you should know that I wouldn’t make a decision that would hurt us both in any way!" Aria told her doing her best to reassure her a bit relieved to see Liora slowly nod her head in response in a way that showed that she also agreed.
"Yes! Having an ability would mean you would be able to protect yourself!" Liora said even as her gaze softened as she realized that Aira was indeed her sister and as long as they we’re on the same page...it was them against the world.