(Aria's POV)
I wake up screaming.
Lyric bursts through the door of my small room, eyes wild. "What's wrong?"
But I can't answer. The nightmare still has its claws in me—flames and screaming and my mother's voice shouting my name.
"Aria!" Lyric kneels beside the bed, gripping my shoulders. "You're safe. You're at the Sanctuary. It was just a dream."
Except it wasn't just a dream. It was a memory.
"The fire," I gasp. "I saw the fire again."
Lyric's expression softens. He releases me and sits on the edge of the bed. "You want to talk about it?"
I shake my head, then change my mind. Maybe talking will help. Maybe if I say it out loud, it'll hurt less.
"I was five years old," I begin. My voice sounds small and broken. "My family lived in a huge mansion—the Thorne estate. We were important once. Powerful. Or so they tell me. I barely remember."
Lyric stays quiet, letting me continue.
"One night, I woke up to screaming. Smoke filled my room. I couldn't breathe." The memories flood back, sharp and terrible. "My father burst in and grabbed me. He was covered in blood. He kept saying, 'They're coming for us. We have to run.'"
"Who was coming?" Lyric asks gently.
"I don't know. I never knew." I press my hands against my face. "He carried me downstairs. The whole house was burning. My mother was already dead in the hallway. I saw her body—"
My voice breaks. Even after nineteen years, that image still destroys me.
"My father ran outside with me. Men in black surrounded us. They had weapons. Magic crackling around their hands." I take a shaky breath. "My father put me down and pressed something into my palm. Something that glowed violet, just like my power did tonight."
Lyric goes very still. "Violet?"
"He said, 'You are the heir. Remember who you are.' Then he pushed me toward the trees and told me to run." Tears stream down my face. "I ran. I looked back once and saw them kill him. Saw the mansion collapse in flames. And then nothing. Just darkness."
"What happened next?"
"I woke up three days later at my uncle's house. Elder Cassian Thorne." The name tastes bitter. "He told me my parents were traitors. That they betrayed the Council and got what they deserved. He said I was cursed—that I destroyed my own family."
Lyric's jaw clenches. "He blamed a five-year-old child?"
"Everyone did." I wipe my eyes angrily. "My aunt and cousins treated me like a servant. I cleaned their floors, washed their clothes, slept in a closet under the stairs. They said I was lucky they even let me live there. That no one else would take in cursed blood."
"That's not true—"
"Isn't it?" I laugh bitterly. "For fourteen years, I believed them. I thought I was worthless. Broken. That I deserved every cruel word, every slap, every night I went to bed hungry because I wasn't worth feeding properly."
Lyric reaches for my hand, but I pull away. I don't deserve comfort. Not when I'm this pathetic.
"I used to dream about finding my mate," I continue. "I thought maybe if someone was fated to love me, it would prove I wasn't cursed. That I had value." I meet Lyric's eyes. "Tonight, I found him. And he rejected me in front of everyone. So I guess my family was right all along."
"Stop." Lyric's voice turns hard. "Don't you dare believe that. Zander rejecting you says nothing about your worth. It says everything about his cowardice."
"He's the Alpha Prime. He can have anyone. Why would he want me?"
"Because fate chose you for him!" Lyric grabs my shoulders again, forcing me to look at him. "Listen to me, Aria. Whatever your family told you was a lie. You're not cursed. You're not worthless. That power inside you? That's proof you come from something extraordinary."
I want to believe him. But nineteen years of being treated like trash doesn't disappear because one kind stranger says nice words.
"What if my uncle was right?" I whisper. "What if my parents really were traitors? What if I'm dangerous—"
"Then be dangerous." Lyric grins fiercely. "Be so dangerous that everyone who ever hurt you regrets it. Starting with Zander Corvus."
Something sparks in my chest. Not the violet power. Something else. Something that feels like hope mixed with rage.
"I don't know how," I admit.
"That's why I'm here. To teach you." Lyric stands and offers his hand. "Come on. Can't sleep anyway. Might as well start your training."
I stare at his hand. The last time I trusted someone offering help, I ended up with a shattered mate bond and a hole in my soul.
But what choice do I have? Hide here forever? Go back to my uncle's house and beg for my closet back?
No. Never again.
I take Lyric's hand and let him pull me to my feet.
He leads me outside to a training yard behind the main building. The moon is still high, casting silver light over everything. A few other rogues watch from the shadows, curious.
"Your power responded to emotion tonight," Lyric says. "Fear and anger made it explode. We need to teach you control."
"How?"
"By making you angry on purpose." He smirks. "Hit me."
I blink. "What?"
"You heard me. Hit me as hard as you can."
"I can't just—"
"Why not? I'm an Alpha. You're an omega. Isn't that what they taught you? That you're too weak to hurt someone like me?" His voice turns mocking. "Come on, cursed girl. Prove you're not worthless."
Rage flares hot in my chest. "Don't call me that."
"Why? That's what your family called you, right? Cursed. Broken. Unwanted." He steps closer, deliberately provoking me. "Maybe Zander was right to reject you. Maybe you really are too weak—"
I swing without thinking.
My fist connects with his jaw. Violet light explodes from the point of contact. Lyric flies backward ten feet and crashes into a fence.
I gasp, horrified. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry—"
But Lyric is laughing. He sits up, rubbing his jaw with a huge grin. "Now that's what I'm talking about! You've got real power in you, Aria."
"I could have killed you!"
"But you didn't. You controlled it just enough." He stands and brushes himself off. "See? When you stop being afraid and let yourself feel, the power responds. It's yours. You just need to own it."
The violet light fades from my hands. I stare at them, amazed and terrified.
"What am I?" I whisper.
Before Lyric can answer, another voice cuts through the night.
"She's a Thorneblood."
We both spin around. An old man steps from the shadows near the compound wall. He's thin and frail-looking, with white hair and eyes that match mine—unusual violet.
My heart stops. I know that face.
"Uncle Cassian?"
The man who raised me, who called me cursed, who made me sleep in a closet for fourteen years, looks at me with tears running down his weathered cheeks.
"I'm sorry," he says, voice breaking. "I'm so, so sorry, Aria. For everything. But you need to know the truth about who you really are before it's too late."
"Too late for what?" Lyric demands, moving protectively in front of me.
Cassian's eyes lock on mine, filled with fear and regret. "The people who killed your parents are coming for you too. They've been waiting nineteen years for your power to awaken." He takes a shaky breath. "And now that it has, they'll stop at nothing
to destroy you—just like they destroyed the rest of our family."