ARIA'S POV
"Eleven more?" I stare at the smoking words on the wall. "ELEVEN?"
Damien pulls me away from the stage as panicked contestants flood toward the exits. Real Vivian stumbles toward us, pale and shaking.
"Are you okay?" I ask her.
She laughs—high and broken. "Am I okay? I just stabbed my possessed boyfriend and watched a demon crawl out of him. No, Aria, I'm not OKAY."
"We need to get her to a hospital—" I start.
"No hospitals." Damien's voice is firm. "If she tells anyone what she saw, they'll think she's crazy. Or worse—the other demons will target her to keep her quiet."
Vivian's eyes widen. "Other demons? How many ARE there?"
"Apparently twelve," I mutter. "One down, eleven to go."
"Fantastic." Vivian sways on her feet. "And I'm guessing they all want to kill my stepsister?"
"Not kill. Possess." Ethan Cross approaches us, his face grim. "They want what she has—the nexus power. A body that can hold multiple timelines. That's worth more than any single talent."
I feel sick. "So every round of Star Maker, they'll try again?"
"Probably." Ethan exchanges a look with Damien. "We need to get you somewhere safe. Somewhere we can protect you while we figure out how to stop this."
"I'm not hiding," I say firmly. "I came back to life to sing, to succeed, to take back everything that was stolen from me. I'm not giving up now just because some demons want my body."
Damien's jaw tightens. "Aria, these aren't ordinary entities. They're organized. Coordinated. This is bigger than one girl's comeback story."
"Then help me get stronger." I meet his eyes. "You said I can access other timelines, other versions of myself. Teach me how. Because I'm going to that next round whether you help me or not."
Silence.
Then Damien smiles—small, but real. "You're either very brave or very stupid."
"Can't I be both?"
Vivian snorts. "I can't believe I hated you for so long. You're actually kind of badass."
"You hated me?"
"Are you kidding? Dad loved you even though you were the affair baby. Everyone talked about your voice, your songs. Meanwhile, I had to work twice as hard for half the recognition." She looks away. "Kyle told me you were holding me back. That if I helped him sabotage you, I'd finally get my moment to shine. I was so jealous and stupid, I believed him."
My heart twists. In my first timeline, I blamed Vivian for everything. But maybe she was a victim too.
"We'll talk about this later," Ethan interrupts. "Right now, we have a problem. The next round of Star Maker is in three days. That's not enough time to train Aria to fight demons."
"Then we don't train her to fight." Damien pulls out his phone and shows us an email. "We train her to ABSORB them."
I read the message. It's from someone called "Dr. Chen Wei," and it's full of scientific terms I don't understand. But one line catches my attention:
"If the subject is truly a nexus point, she doesn't need to destroy the entities. She can MERGE with them, taking their power while neutralizing their threat."
"Merge with demons?" Vivian's voice rises. "That sounds like a terrible idea!"
"It's the only idea," Damien says. "Aria's body can hold multiple consciousnesses—that's what makes her a nexus. If she learns to control it, she can absorb the demons' energy without being possessed. She'd become stronger with each one."
"Or she'd become a monster," I whisper. "What if I absorb them and they take over from the inside?"
"That's the risk." Ethan looks at me seriously. "But if you don't try, they'll keep coming. They'll attack your friends, your family, anyone close to you until you're alone and vulnerable. This is war, Aria. And in war, you use every weapon you have."
My phone buzzes. A text from an unknown number:
"Smart girl. Come to Studio 47 at midnight. Alone. I'll teach you how to harness your power. Or you can refuse and watch everyone you love die one by one. Your choice. - Dr. Chen Wei"
"It's a trap," Damien says immediately, reading over my shoulder.
"Of course it's a trap." I pocket my phone. "But it's also information. This Dr. Chen Wei knows about nexus points, knows about the demons. Maybe he can actually help."
"Or maybe he's working WITH the demons." Vivian points out. "Using you to—I don't know—open some portal or unleash hell on earth?"
"Only one way to find out." I head toward the exit.
Damien grabs my arm. "You're not going alone."
"The text said—"
"I don't care what it said. I'm not letting you walk into a trap without backup." His grip is gentle but firm. "I've been tracking these entities for five years, Aria. I've seen what they do to people. I'm not watching you become another victim."
Something in his voice makes me pause. "Why do you care so much?"
He hesitates, and for a moment, I see real pain in his eyes. "Because my mother was a nexus point too. And the demons killed her when I was fifteen years old."
The air leaves my lungs. "Damien..."
"She could sing too. Beautiful voice. She was going to be a star." His voice is flat, emotionless, like he's reciting facts. "Then one day during a performance, something took over her body. She fought it for three months. Every day, she lost a little more of herself. By the end, she wasn't my mother anymore. She was just a shell wearing her face."
"What happened to her?"
"She begged me to kill her. Begged me to end it before the demon took over completely." His hands clench into fists. "I was fifteen. I didn't know how. So I watched as she slowly disappeared. And when the demon finally won, it used her body to kill five other people before my father had to... end it."
Tears stream down my face. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't be sorry. Be CAREFUL." He meets my eyes. "You're not going to that meeting alone. And you're not merging with any demons until we know exactly what we're dealing with. Understand?"
I nod.
But my phone buzzes again. Another message from Dr. Chen Wei:
"I see Cross is playing hero again. Tell him this: if you bring him to our meeting, I'll send the demons after his brother instead. Ethan Cross doesn't have nexus immunity. He'll die screaming, just like Damien's mother did. Tick tock, Aria. Six hours until midnight."
Below it, a photo of Ethan leaving the audition venue. Taken from across the street. Five minutes ago.
Someone is WATCHING us. Right now.
"They're threatening Ethan," I show Damien the message.
His face goes white. "No. Absolutely not. We'll protect him—"
"How? You can't watch him every second. And if I don't go alone, they'll kill him to prove a point." My voice shakes but stays firm. "I have to do this."
"Then I'm tracking you." Damien pulls a tiny silver device from his pocket—smaller than a pill. "Swallow this. It's a GPS beacon linked to my phone. If anything goes wrong, I'll know exactly where you are."
"And then what? You storm in and they kill Ethan anyway?"
"Then I storm in and HOPE we're all fast enough." He presses the device into my palm. "Please, Aria. Let me at least have a chance to save you."
I look at the tiny beacon, then at Damien's desperate eyes, then at Vivian's terrified face.
These people barely know me. But they're willing to risk everything to help.
"Okay," I whisper. "I'll take the tracker."
Relief floods Damien's face. "Thank you."
"But if things go bad, you save Ethan first. Promise me."
"Aria—"
"PROMISE me. He's your brother. Family comes first."
Damien's jaw works. Finally: "I promise."
I swallow the tracker. It goes down easily, tasteless.
"Midnight," I say. "Studio 47. Let's see what Dr. Chen Wei really wants."
Vivian grabs my hand suddenly. "For what it's worth? I'm sorry. For everything I did in the timeline that doesn't exist anymore. For hating you. For letting Kyle use me to hurt you."
"It's okay—"
"It's not okay. But maybe I can make it right." She pulls out her phone. "I'm a social media influencer. I have 2 million followers. If something happens to you tonight, I'll make sure everyone knows about these demons. I'll expose everything."
"They'll kill you," Ethan warns.
"Then I'll die doing something good for once." Vivian's smile is sad but determined. "Better than living as a jealous coward."
I hug her—this girl who should be my enemy but might be my only real family.
"Stay safe," I whisper.
"You too."
Six hours later, I'm standing outside Studio 47 in an abandoned warehouse district. Midnight exactly.
The door is unlocked.
I push it open.
Inside, the studio is dark except for one light shining on a recording booth. And sitting at the control panel, fingers steepled, is a man I've never seen before.
"Miss Chen." His smile is friendly, but his eyes are cold. "I'm Dr. Chen Wei. And before you ask—yes, I know about the demons. I know about your nexus power. I know about the twelve entities hunting you."
"How?"
"Because I'm the one who SENT them." His smile widens. "Well, not me exactly. But the organization I work for. We've been cultivating nexus points for decades. Creating them. Training them. And now, finally, we have a perfect specimen."
My blood turns to ice. "You CREATED me?"
"Not created. Enhanced. Your death ten years from now? We arranged it. Your rebirth? We facilitated it. Every version of you, every timeline—we've been pulling the strings all along." He stands. "You're not a miracle, Aria. You're an EXPERIMENT. And tonight, we're going to see if you're worth the investment."
The door behind me slams shut.
All the lights turn on.
Around me, standing in a circle, are eleven figures.
Eleven people with BLACK EYES.
The remaining demons.
"Welcome to your final test," Dr. Chen Wei says pleasantly. "Absorb all eleven demons in the next hour, or they'll rip you apart and we'll start over with a new candidate. Ready? BEGIN."
The demons lunge at me all at once.
And I realize with horror—Damien's tracker means he'll come running straight into this trap.
I'm not the only one who's about to die tonight.