A Scar Beneath the Skin
Selene
I shouldn't have followed the voice.
But something about it—too soft to be a threat, too familiar to be safe—ripped through the fog in my mind like lightning. It called to a version of me I didn't remember choosing to forget.
The club's back hallway wasn't made for wandering. Low lights. Private rooms. Men with secrets. Women with more.
Lucian was still at the bar, handling something. His jacket was on my shoulders. His heat still on my skin.
But the moment I heard the whisper—barely more than a hum—my legs moved before my brain could catch up.
"Selene…"
Just a whisper. But it split me wide open.
---
I turned the corner.
Saw the woman just as she turned to disappear.
She moved like a ghost—but ghosts don't wear five-inch heels and Prada.
My body slammed into hers before either of us could say a word.
She grabbed my arm to steady me.
Our eyes locked.
And everything inside me shattered.
Nyx.
Same eyes as Lucian's.
Same smile he only ever wore in the seconds before he struck.
But this wasn't just resemblance.
This was blood.
This was her.
The sister I'd seen once—in a photo Lucian didn't know I'd found.
The one the headlines called dead.
The one whose name Lucian had never once said out loud.
---
She looked startled. Then curious.
Then careful.
"You weren't supposed to see me yet," she said softly, brushing a strand of her black hair behind her ear. "Guess fate's still impatient."
"What the hell is going on?" I whispered. "Lucian said you were—"
"Dead?" she offered, tilting her head. "We all are, in some way."
"Who are you?"
Nyx leaned close. Smelled like violets and gunpowder. "I'm the reason your memories are leaking," she said. "The reason Lucian won't let you out of his sight. And the reason your father's therapist wanted you wiped clean."
My throat closed.
"You know about Kearse?"
Nyx smirked. "Selene… sweetheart. I know everything. And so do you."
---
Footsteps. Voices. Lucian.
I blinked—and she was gone.
Like she'd never been there at all.
---
Lucian
She was shaken.
Tried to hide it with jokes and wine.
But her eyes kept drifting—searching shadows that didn't move. Hands trembling when she thought I wouldn't notice.
I'd seen Selene afraid before.
But never like this.
"What happened?" I asked.
She paused. Too long.
Then: "Ran into someone."
"Who?"
She shook her head. "No one you'd know."
Lie.
Her tell was in the way her fingers tapped the rim of her glass. A habit she didn't even know she had.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," I said, pouring another drink.
Her smile was tight. "Maybe I have."
---
That night, she didn't go home.
She came to my penthouse without a word, stripped the moment the door closed, and kissed me like it was the only language she remembered.
I didn't ask why.
Didn't need to.
She was unraveling.
And I was the only one allowed to watch.
---
We ended up on the couch. Her legs straddling mine. Skin fever-hot. Mouth wild.
"Selene—" I started.
"Don't," she whispered. "Just… touch me."
And I did.
Every inch.
Every scar.
Every secret.
When she came undone beneath me, it wasn't pleasure she cried out in.
It was grief.
And I knew then—someone had reminded her of what she used to be.
Someone I hadn't accounted for.
---
After she fell asleep, tangled in my sheets, I stepped onto the balcony.
Dialed a number I hadn't used in a year.
It rang once.
Twice.
"Lucian," the voice answered. Female. Calm. Cold.
"I need to talk to your sister."
Silence.
"She's not part of this anymore," the woman said.
"She is now."
More silence.
Then a click.
Behind me, Selene stirred.
And inside me?
Something ancient uncoiled.
Because if Nyx was back in play…
Then none of us were safe.
Especially Selene.
---
Selene
I woke to the sound of Lucian's voice, low and sharp on the balcony.
My body was sore. Satisfied. Betrayed.
Because I remembered now.
The first time I'd met Nyx.
It wasn't in the hallway tonight.
It was in the lab.
I was fifteen. Bleeding from a nosebleed no one caused. Hooked up to wires I didn't understand. And she—
She was screaming.
At Kearse.
At my father.
At *me*, for not running.
Then she disappeared.
And they told me I hallucinated her.
That I broke.
But I hadn't.
They did.
---
I stared at Lucian through the glass door. The way he gripped the phone. The way he muttered something like a threat.
And suddenly the truth burned clear as fire.
He knew.
He'd always known.
He just didn't know that I was remembering faster than he could lie.
---
"Selene."
I turned.
Lucian stood there, half-dressed, eyes shadowed.
"You're awake."
I smiled sweetly. "So are your secrets."
He stilled.
"What did you say?"
I stepped closer, slid my arms around his waist. Tilted my chin to kiss his neck.
Then whispered:
"I said… I remember."
And just like that, his predator mode ignited.
His eyes blackened.
His arms locked around me like a cage.
His voice? A promise wrapped in warning.
"Then it's already too late."
---