Chapter 30 – Shadows Between Us
Aria had never known silence could feel so loud.
All night, she tossed in tangled sheets, Damien's words circling like a noose: My father built an empire on blood.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw his face in the car — hard, unyielding, as though confessing even that much had cost him more than she understood.
But it wasn't his warning that kept her awake. It was the name.
Professor Callahan.
She remembered the flicker on Damien's phone screen, the sharp way his jaw clenched when he saw her notice. He hadn't just been irritated. He'd been afraid.
And if Damien was afraid, then Callahan was her key.
By morning, Aria's decision felt less like rebellion and more like survival. If she was going to stand beside Damien, she had to know what he was hiding from her. Otherwise, she was only clinging to shadows.
Her phone buzzed just after noon.
Damien.
Three words glared back at her.
Where are you?
Her breath caught. It wasn't curiosity. It wasn't affection. It was control wrapped in concern.
She set the phone face down on the counter, fingers trembling. If she replied, he'd hear the hesitation in her words. If she lied, he'd know. And if she told him the truth…
Her chest tightened. She didn't finish the thought.
By the time the clock struck two, she was walking across the university's deserted courtyard, the sound of her heels echoing too loudly against the pavement. The library loomed ahead, its arched windows reflecting the grey sky that promised rain.
Aria hesitated at the steps. The rational part of her screamed to turn back. Damien's warning echoed: Stay away from him.
But then another voice rose inside her, softer but stronger. If you don't, you'll never know who Damien really is.
"Miss Aria."
The low voice behind her made her spin.
Professor Callahan stood beneath the stone archway, the door half-open as though he'd been waiting. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows, his expression calm — too calm, the kind of calm that carried weight.
"You came sooner than I expected," he said, holding the door wider.
Aria's pulse jumped. "You knew I would."
A ghost of a smile curved his lips. "Damien leaves cracks in his armor. I've been waiting for someone brave enough to step through them."
The words chilled her more than the cool wind threading through the courtyard. She should walk away. She should. But her feet carried her forward, past the threshold, into the library's shadowed hush.
The heavy door shut behind her with a finality that made her shiver.
The library smelled of old paper and dust, but it wasn't the books that commanded the space. It was Callahan himself, moving with a quiet authority that reminded her uncomfortably of Damien.
"Why me?" Aria asked, her voice steadier than she felt.
Callahan regarded her with eyes that seemed to weigh every layer of her soul. "Because you're the first person Damien has let close enough to matter. And that makes you both his strength… and his weakness."
Her breath caught. "If you know him so well, then tell me what he won't."
Callahan's smile didn't reach his eyes. He gestured toward a table in the far corner, away from the windows, away from prying eyes.
"Sit. What I tell you won't be easy to hear."
Aria's legs carried her forward, though her instincts screamed that this was the exact trap Damien had wanted her to avoid. Still, she sat, heart racing, hands clasped so tightly in her lap that her knuckles whitened.
Callahan didn't sit immediately. He studied her as though memorizing her reactions, the way Damien did when he was calculating a move. Finally, he lowered himself across from her, his voice dropping.
"Damien's father was ruthless, yes. But Damien…" Callahan leaned forward, the air between them sharpening. "…Damien is not the innocent son he pretends to be. He wasn't just a bystander in his father's empire. He was raised in it. Trained in it."
Aria's stomach dropped. "That's not true." The denial slipped out before she could stop it, but her voice lacked conviction.
Callahan's gaze held hers, unwavering. "You think the darkness you glimpse in him is accidental? No, Aria. It's carved into him. And if you stay, it will carve into you too."
Her pulse thundered. Part of her wanted to stand and walk out, to prove him wrong, to defend Damien. But another part — the part that remembered Damien's steel grip on the steering wheel, the danger in his eyes when he said stay away from him — whispered that Callahan wasn't lying.
The silence stretched, thick with unspoken truths. Aria felt the weight of it pressing down, suffocating.
Finally, she whispered, "Then tell me everything."