Chapter 309: Blood
ARIA
I don’t know how long I sat inside the cafe. All the noise faded into the background.
Until a touch jolted me, cold against my skin. I flinched, lifting my head before I even realized what I was doing. That was when it hit me...I was crying. Not softly, not discreetly...my whole face was wet, my cheeks raw, my lashes clumped together. My breaths came broken, shallow.
"What’s wrong?" Ash’s voice was low, urgent, already circling around the table.
I shook my head. Slowly. Helplessly. Words refused to form. Every time I tried to breathe, it cracked inside me, like my ribs were splintering, like the air had claws. And still everything I’d tried to bury clawed its way back up, spilling into the open.
"Aria..." Ash crouched in front of me now, her hand hovering, uncertain, her eyes wide and burning. "Is it Kael?"
I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. I just nodded.
Her expression hardened instantly, sharp enough to cut. "What did that bastard do?"
And finally, I forced myself to speak, my voice dry and trembling. "I finally got what I deserved."
"Don’t...don’t say that." Ash’s tone cracked, thick with anger and disbelief startling some of the customers around us.
"I’m fine," I whispered, though my chest was still heaving like I’d been running through hell.
"You’re not fine," she snapped. "Tell me what happened."
I swallowed, tasting the salt of my own tears, the ash of my own shame. "He ended it." My voice was a ghost. "The contract... between us. He said I was just convenient. And that he was bored."
Ash froze for a beat, like she couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. Then her face twisted, furious. "That son of a..."
But I was already gone, slipping out of myself. Numb. Empty. Like my body was here, but my mind was drifting into that white static where nothing touched me, not even her voice.
And then...sharp. A sudden stab deep in my abdomen, hot and cutting, stealing the breath right out of my throat.
My hand flew instinctively to my stomach, curling tight, and a strangled sound slipped past my lips before I could stop it.
The first cramp tore through me so suddenly I couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t the dull ache of hunger or exhaustion...it was sharp, violent, like someone had reached inside me and twisted. My body bowed forward, a strangled gasp ripping from my throat.
"Aria?" Ash’s voice sounded distant, even though she was right there. I tried to straighten, to stand, but my legs buckled with the effort. My hands shook as I pressed them to my stomach, as if I could stop whatever was happening.
And then warmth. A gush of liquid so hot and heavy it startled me. My breath hitched. At first I thought...I thought I’d lost control of myself, that I was urinating right there on the floor. Shame flushed me, but then the smell hit me...thick, metallic, copper...and my stomach dropped.
Blood.
It was blood. I heard collective gasps but everything quickly dulled back.
"Ash," I whispered, though my throat was too dry, too raw.
Her face changed instantly when she saw the red streaming down my legs. "Oh my god...oh my god... someone help." She was fumbling for her phone, hands trembling looking around while people watched, others slow approaching.
But I couldn’t hear her or them anymore, because the pain came back. Stronger. Rhythmic. My whole body convulsed with it, waves of pressure rolling through me. It wasn’t just pain...it was something deeper, primal, like my own body was trying to expel something.
Blood poured. I could feel it soaking through my pants, gushing down to the floor in a terrifying flood. My knees wavered, my balance tilting.
I clawed for air. "What’s... happening to me?"
Ash caught my arm, her voice breaking. "I don’t know...I don’t know, Aria...just stay with me...please..."
But the pressure was unbearable now, low in my pelvis, heavy, sickening. I could feel it pushing down, sliding. My whole body clenched, forcing something through me.
"No...no, no, no..." I shook my head, sobbing, because I could feel it moving. A wet, slippery shift, like something was being dragged out of me.
And then it happened.
A sickening squelch hit the floor.
I froze. My whole body revolted. The smell of iron, the heat of blood coating my thighs, my hands when I reached down in desperation...it was too much. My ears rang. My vision swam. The world narrowed into red and the sound of my heartbeat roaring inside my skull.
"Aria! Stay with me!" Ash’s voice was breaking apart, warped like it was underwater. She was gripping me so tight it hurt, trying to anchor me.
But I was slipping.
My legs shook violently, unable to hold me up. My hands slipped against the table, wet with blood, unable to steady myself. I staggered, choking, the floor tilting under me.
Everything blurred. Black crept in from the edges of my sight, the cafe collapsing into a tunnel of shadows.
I tried to speak, to ask Ash again what was happening, but my words drowned under the sound of my pulse.
And then my body gave out.
I collapsed, the last thing I felt was the heat of blood soaking me, the copper stench choking me, and the sickening sense that something had just left me forever.
Then...nothing.
I woke to warmth. Soft sheets cocooning me, a steady arm draped heavy around my waist. The scent of him hit me first...dark, clean, Kael. My chest loosened, a sigh escaping before I even opened my eyes.
And when I did, there he was.
Kael.
Sleeping beside me, face softened in the kind of peace I rarely ever got to see. No sharpness. No command. No cruelty. Just him...breathing slow, lashes dark against his skin, his hand fisted gently in my shirt as though afraid I’d slip away even in sleep.
For a moment, confusion tugged at me. The room was massive, opulent, familiar...the vaulted ceilings, the carved furniture. Italy. The castle. The weeks we spent there for that wedding, where I would wake up sore and aching, half-cursing him for ruining my body all night only to find myself the happiest I’d ever been because I got mornings like this.
It was a memory. I knew it was. But I didn’t care.
Because God, I missed him. I missed this. Him like this. Us like this.
I rolled onto my side, watching him. Drinking him in. I thought if I could stay here long enough, maybe the longing that gnawed at my ribs would stop. Maybe I’d never have to wake up again.
"Kael," I whispered, reaching for his face, desperate to feel the warmth of his skin under my fingers.
But before I could touch him, something shifted between us.
A small body. Tiny. Warm.
A boy. A toddler, maybe two or three. He looked up at me with sharp green eyes I knew too well, dark hair falling into his face. His smile split wide, pure sunshine in the middle of our sheets.
Kael stirred too, his arm flexing around me as he blinked awake, instinctively pulling me close.
For one heartbeat, I thought...this is it. This is everything.
But then it shattered.
Something yanked me back, violent, ripping. The boy’s laughter echoed and warped, Kael’s hand slipped from mine, and the whole world collapsed around me.
Pain slammed back into me. Agonizing, real. My body screamed, my blood sticky and hot beneath me again.
Muffled voices swarmed around me. Urgent. Frantic.
"...critical blood loss..."
"...pressure’s dropping..."
"...move faster!"
I tried to move my hand, to reach for him again. My lips trembled, the words choking out. "Kael... don’t... don’t go. You can’t... you can’t discard me..."
No one answered.
Only the roar in my ears, the tearing ache in my chest, and the hot sting of tears slipping down my face as darkness folded me under again.