Aria woke with tears on her cheeks.
The room was dim, washed in the soft gray of early dawn. Light crept through the cracks in the curtains, painting thin slivers across the sheets. For a moment, she did not know where she was. Her breathing came fast and uneven, her heart thudding painfully against her ribs. Her hands clutched at the blankets without understanding why, a reflex born from the fear lingering in her bones.
She felt it.
Not the memory of the dream, but the shadow of it. An echo of something that slipped away the moment she opened her eyes.
A voice.
A feeling.
A warning.
Something she could not name.
"Aria?"
Luca's voice came from beside her.
She turned her head. He was already awake, sitting upright against the headboard, his arm still beneath her shoulders where he had held her through the night. He looked exhausted, but the moment he saw her tears, exhaustion vanished from his face.
