Gaius stepped toward her, his expression unreadable, and took hold of her ankle.
She tried to pull away, but the pain in her body made even the smallest movement impossible.
The age difference should have given her strength—she had always been the one guiding him, lifting him, defending him—
but now she was weakened, breathless, unable to rise.
He dragged her closer across the floor, her hands trembling as she tried to brace herself.
Please!!!
Her voice cracked into the air for help , but the silence that followed was painful.
For a moment she realized the truth:
Perhaps everyone in the city had already left.
Maybe the screaming outside had been the last breath of the living,
and she and her son were the only ones left to hear it.
The room echoed with her cries, each one cutting through the silence like a broken truth.
"I wish I killed you when I had the chance," she spat, her voice trembling as if she knew this wasn't going to be her last word,
Gaius didn't wait for her to speak again.
He immediately sliced her throat opened,
She collapsed against him, her eyes wide with disbelief more than pain.
Her fingers trembled at his sleeve, searching for something, maybe a reason…then these words followed.
"I know the truth," Gaius said as he leaned in. "You're not my real mother."
That was the last thing she ever heard, the truth she hid from the small boy was finally out.
Gaius held the dark creature's hand as they wandered away into the shadows.
Moving farther from the house , which was now drenched in blood and fire.
He had chosen darkness over the walls of lies.
Matrona[1] and her husband thought they were clever, hiding behind titles and wealth, pretending righteousness.
But Gaius knew now.
They killed his real parents for power,they claimed all that was meant to be his.
He planned to kill Matrona far worse than this.
Gaius wanted her to suffer the way his parents did.
But fate stepped in first.
She died too easily and that alone irritated him.
Even though they took him, raised him, trained him as their own…
No lie was ever going to stay buried.
Lies always find a way back to the surface, spreading rot and pain.
There was still one person left with the blood of his real parents on their hands.
Aurelia's father.
He would find him.
And he swore he would not die easily.
Gaius planned to claim Aurelia as his compensation for his parents' death, she would pay for what had been taken from him.
The dark creature and him moved through the ruined city, every sound stretching with the memory of blood and betrayal.
He didn't look back or even try to hesitate, Aurelia was his debt and nothing could stop what he had decided.
-----------------------------------------
Years later…
Aurelia sat on a wooden chair near the window, the sun striking her pale skin and catching in the strands of her long white hair, making it shine like threads of silver, her violet eyes reflecting the light yet holding shadows too deep for any to see.
She opened her diary, the pages waiting, and wrote of the ruin that had shaped her life, of the family lost, of the burdens she now carried and the strength she forced herself to summon, each word flowing like a silent confession, each thought a step toward understanding the fate that had been thrust upon her.
( My life lies in ruin, for with the death of my mother and brother, my father became a shadow of himself, taking three wives yet finding no joy, and still the dark creatures have shattered all we held dear, tearing my family asunder.
I did not seek beauty, and yet I hid myself from the world, I resolved to become a warrior worthy of my people, yet my hand faltered upon the sword, and so I took up the bow, for its flight reaches where legs cannot carry.
I aspired to be a Knight of humanity, yet the men who meet my violet eyes are undone, struck by madness or desire, as though the Fates themselves marked me for trials beyond my choosing.
And still, in the quiet hours, I feel the shadow of my brother, the darkness he chose, and I wonder if one day the past will return to claim us all.
I wish to marry a soldier, by that way my dreams of conquering the dark realms will be accomplished, that is why I agreed to marry Marcus, a man I know nothing about.
Although his name shakes the people and every girl nearly lose their self at the sight of him, for he is said to possess an excellent figure.
But I do not long for love, but power.
Since the heavens have shown no sign of answering our prayers or saving us, I plan on raising an army to cut the dark creatures down, for they have destroyed our home and our faith.
Marcus, at least for now, looks like the only path before me. )
Before she could finish writing, a girl dressed in floral patterns barged in. It was Fira, Aurelia's stepsister.
"Sorry for the intrusion. Father said I should help you prepare. Marcus is to come today," Fira said, her voice light but careful, her eyes flicking to Aurelia as if measuring her, as if trying to gauge what kind of woman her father had chosen for a soldier she knew nothing about.
Aurelia didn't look up. Her violet eyes were fixed on the page for a moment longer.
Then slowly she closed the diary, a hand brushing over the words she had poured like fire onto the pages, and said,
"I am ready."
Her voice was calm, almost cold, betraying nothing of the storm building inside.
She adjusted her dress, letting it fall in a way that revealed just enough of her slender form, every movement deliberate, every glance measured.
She had to make Marcus take notice, for this was the only way her plan could breathe, the only way she could turn the pieces of her broken life into power.
As she smoothed the fabric over her arm, her violet eyes flicked to the window, thinking of the dark creatures that had destroyed her family, the father who failed to protect them, and the army she would one day raise.
Marcus was her key,and she would use her greatest power to get him.
Lust
It was the tool, the weapon she had mastered.
And she was certain he would fall for it.
--------------------------------
To be continued...
[1] Aurelia’s mother