Chapter 39: The Shadow That Stayed
She didn't mean to disappear.
But she had to.
Selene moved like smoke through the weeping paths behind the manor, cloaked in dusk and deception. Her footsteps made no sound. Her presence barely kissed the ground. She didn't breathe like a woman who had just walked away from something she loved. She breathed like a predator—measured, hidden, starving.
She hadn't gone far. Not really.
She just needed to know if Aria would follow.
But the girl hadn't.
Not yet.
So Selene lingered—half a mile out, nestled beneath a crumbling stone arch that had long been claimed by ivy and moonlight. From there, the silhouette of the manor rose faintly against the bruised sky, distant but still magnetic, like a pulse calling her back. Every window was a question. Every light a trap.
She didn't plan to stay this long.
But here she was—night.
Still watching. Still waiting. Still hers.
Her hands curled at her sides, nails digging into leather. She could feel Aria's magic from here. It sang through the stone walls like a song half-learned, half-feared. Unstable. Searching. It had changed since Selene had left—grown quieter, yes, but sharper too. Hungrier.
It missed her.
The thought struck her low, somewhere behind her ribs. She hated how easily she believed it. Hated how easily she needed it.
She had walked away to protect her.
She kept telling herself that.
But as she stood in the overgrown dark, her heart burning beneath her cloak, she could no longer tell if she'd done it for Aria's sake—or her own. Because truthfully, Selene had been seconds away from crumbling. From pressing her mouth to Aria's trembling neck and saying, Take me, then. If you want to ruin something, ruin me.
But Aria wasn't ready for that.
Or maybe Selene wasn't.
Still, she hadn't gone far. Because the part of her that loved restraint was also the part that loved watching.
And she did watch.
That first night, she'd waited to see if Aria would come storming after her, magic flaring, voice shaking with unformed demands.
She didn't.
The second night, Selene caught her pacing alone in the sitting room, barefoot and visibly flushed, as if she'd been arguing with herself in the mirror. A book left unread on the floor. A glass of wine barely touched.
The third night—tonight—Aria had wandered to the window again, fingers curled on the frame, eyes searching shadows she couldn't quite name. Selene had seen the way her lips parted. As if she were about to call out.
She didn't.
But tonight, her aura changed.
Subtle. Sharp.
Aria had begun to ache.
Not just with sadness. Not just with magic.
With want.
Selene's breath caught.
Something more primal threaded through her now, curling up from the pit of her stomach like smoke through a keyhole. It wasn't jealousy, exactly, but territory. And Aria was still hers, no matter how long Selene hid in the dark.
She moved.
Not back to the door. Not yet. But closer—near enough to feel the heat leaking from the stone walls, near enough to hear the faintest movements from the second floor.
Aria was awake. Pacing again.
Selene smirked.
Still wearing that foolish nightgown, then. The pale one that clung to her hips like a second thought. She had tried to hide it under a robe the last time they spoke, but Selene had noticed the flush that rose to her cheeks when the fabric slipped, revealing a sliver of thigh.
Selene had memorized that blush.
She wanted to see it again.
The thought coiled low in her stomach, heavier now. More dangerous.
Because she could go to her.
Climb through the window like the monster Aria half-believed her to be. Pin her down and whisper all the things she'd been biting back since the beginning.
But no—
That wasn't how this story turned.
Not yet.
So instead, she leaned against the stone, letting her magic slip into the room like a lover's breath. Soft. Teasing. A whisper against Aria's neck that might feel like nothing—or everything.
Inside, Aria stilled.
Selene felt it. Her hesitation. Her shiver.
Then—slowly—she moved to the bed.
Selene's mouth curved, slow and wicked.
She wasn't looking.
But Aria felt her.
That familiar electricity—like static in the bones. It wasn't pain. It was pressure. The kind that made her breath catch and her thighs press together. The kind that made her whisper things into the dark, unsure if she was talking to herself… or to Selene.
"Don't go far."
Selene almost groaned.
She wanted to break her own rules.
She wanted to slip in, grab Aria by the wrist, press her back against the nearest wall and murmur, Say it louder, little spark. Say it again. She wanted to watch her unravel, not in fear, but in thrill.
But the girl had to ask for it.
Properly.
A light flickered out in the bedroom. Then another.
Selene tilted her head, the way a wolf does when the prey plays dead.
She waited.
And then it came.
A soft gasp. A shift of weight. A quiet please that wasn't spoken aloud but lived in the magic that pulsed out like a blush across the air.
Selene felt her own hunger bloom hot in her veins.
She didn't need to be in the room to touch her.
Not really.
She let her magic skim the edges of Aria's aura, not enough to scare—but enough to taste. Just enough to tease.
Inside, Aria sat up straight.
Selene could almost see her now—lips parted, cheeks flushed, nightgown slipping too low, one bare shoulder kissed by moonlight.
The girl whimpered softly.
Selene pressed her palm flat to the stone and whispered, low enough that the wind barely caught it—
"Still mine."
She didn't expect Aria to hear it. Not truly.
But the air inside the room shifted.
Aria whispered something back into the dark.
A name. A sigh. A secret.
Selene's heart pounded.
She had thought leaving would keep them safe.
But safety had never been part of their story.
They were meant to burn.
So Selene stayed one more night.
And tomorrow?
She might stay again.
Because leaving wasn't the hardest part.
Staying gone was.
And if Aria kept whispering into the night with that sweet little blush and aching magic wrapped around her—
Selene wouldn't stay gone for much longer.
She would return like the monster she was becoming.
Like heat on bare skin.
Like shadow on silk.
Like need that didn't ask for permission anymore.
Because Aria had never been afraid of the dark.
Only of what it wanted to do to her.
And Selene?
Selene wanted to do everything.