Chapter 31
Gabriella hugged me so tightly it almost felt as though she truly saw me as one of her own daughters.
With warmth.
With genuine motherly affection.
Tarven’s father, Elliot, stood beside her.
More reserved.
But no less welcoming.
“It’s so wonderful that you decided to visit us today,” Gabriella said warmly, slipping an arm around my shoulders as she guided me farther into the house.
Straight toward the dining room I knew all too well.
“You absolutely have to stay for dinner.”
Unfortunately, the same enthusiasm was nowhere to be found on the faces of the three people already seated around the large oval table.
Well...
To be fair, Tarven’s younger sisters did brighten the moment they saw him.
Only for that warmth to vanish the instant their eyes landed on me.
Flora looked away immediately.
Probably to roll her eyes where no one could see.
Something she'd perfected over the years.
Daisy crossed her arms over her chest, her lips pressed into a thin line.
Rosalie, however...
Smiled.
Which made her the most dangerous person at the table.
Far more dangerous than the others.
Because she always knew exactly where to strike—
With both words and actions.
“We were nearby,” Tarven said with an easy smile.
“It would've been a crime not to stop by.”
Gabriella finally let go of me and began setting another place at the table.
While Tarven dropped into the chair beside Flora, I quietly exhaled before taking the seat next to Rosalie.
“Tarven, we seriously can't wait to see you on television again,” Daisy said brightly as she immediately began piling food onto his plate from nearly every dish on the table.
The Selection had always been Daisy's favorite event of the year.
Every year she paid attention to what Tarven wore.
Who he danced with.
Everything.
“This year you'll be dancing with Anastasia, right?” Gabriella asked, glancing between the two of us.
Honestly, we hadn't even talked about it.
There had never really been a reason to.
The answer had always been obvious.
“Of course,” Tarven replied.
“I also became Stasia's mentor this year.”
“Yes, we were absolutely thrilled to hear that,” Flora said, making no attempt whatsoever to hide the sarcasm dripping from her voice.
Not a single person at the table reacted.
“We just hope you won't distract our brother too much with all your problems,” Rosalie added sweetly, blinking with practiced innocence.
My fingers tightened around the fabric of my training pants.
Every part of me wanted to disappear.
Despite sitting at a table surrounded by people...
I'd never felt more alone.
They kept talking.
But I stopped listening.
Stopped trying to follow the conversation altogether.
Right now, I had only one goal.
To become part of the furniture.
Something unnoticed.
Something untouchable.
And somehow survive the night.
Illariana Arden’s POV
Airis’s third favorite installation was hidden beneath the restaurant where we had finished dinner only a few minutes earlier.
The spiral staircase seemed endless.
“At this rate, I’m going to get dizzy,” I finally muttered.
It had been a long time since wearing heels had exhausted me.
I wore them almost every day.
But apparently even that wasn’t enough preparation for whatever strange route Airis had planned.
“Stop complaining, Fireling,” Airis said without slowing down.
“We’re almost there.”
I raised a brow and glanced farther down the staircase.
There was still no end in sight.
“There are several levels,” he explained.
“Ours is on the first one.”
Only after descending a little farther did I finally notice a rounded archway carved into the wall on our right.
It was completely swallowed by darkness.
Maybe that was why I hadn't noticed it before.
The second we stepped through the archway...
The darkness swallowed us too.
The moment it closed around me—
absolute blackness.
Unease tightened beneath my ribs.
I turned around.
Nothing.
No staircase.
No doorway.
No trace of the world we'd left behind.
As though it had never existed at all.
And somehow...
That made the darkness even more terrifying.
I could already feel magic rushing toward my fingertips.
Except...
Instead of flames—
soft but steady hands reached me first.
Warmth settled gently against my back.
I knew instantly.
It was Airis.
“The installation is testing us. It's okay,” he said quietly.
I could only hope he couldn't feel the warmth spreading through my body.
Or the way my lungs had suddenly forgotten how to work.
“It's a special chamber,” he continued.
“It only reveals itself at the right moment.”
I stayed silent.
Frozen by his voice, which sounded strangely different within these walls.
Then—
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
Three separate lights ignited at once, illuminating the chamber around us.
It was a vast circular room filled with floor-length mirrors.
Each mirror was crowned by a sharply pointed frame.
And every one shimmered with a different color.
Only then did I notice that all twelve frames converged toward the very center of the room.
A golden circle rested on the floor.
Inside it were twelve smaller circles—
Each glowing with the same color as one of the mirrors.
The rest of the chamber remained shrouded in darkness.
Mist drifted slowly across the floor.
Only the mirrors gave the room its light.
My gaze wandered carefully through the chamber, unwilling to miss even the smallest detail.
I wanted to understand the installation on my own.
To discover why it meant so much to Airis.
But my mind offered nothing.
Nothing at all.
“Why is this one among your favorites?” I finally asked.
“And why is every installation here so... complicated?”
Only then did I realize how close we were standing.
Somewhere along the way...
Our fingers had intertwined.
But when the contact disappeared...
It didn't make me feel any better.
“This installation is called The True One.”
I stayed silent, listening carefully.
“All the mirrors are connected to a single projection containing Ruel’s poems and quotations.
Each sphere on the floor represents a different emotion or state of the soul.”
“For example?” I interrupted, lowering my gaze toward the glowing circles beneath us.
Only then did I notice that every sphere bore a zodiac symbol.
“What does Leo represent?”
“Pride,” he answered.
“Along with self-worth and the desire for recognition.”
“Interesting…”
“And how do you actually see one of Ruel’s quotes?”
“The quotes choose you.”
His answers remained frustratingly brief.
As always, he allowed silence to settle before continuing.
“All you have to do is stand in the center.
The sphere drawn to you will illuminate.
Then, when you look into its mirror...
The words will appear.”
“And you'll see the same ones?” I glanced back at him.
“Only my own,” Airis replied, taking a step backward.
Giving me the center.
“It's rare for two people to receive the same words at the same time.”
I turned back toward the star engraved into the floor.
Then stepped into its center.
And waited.
Nothing.
The installation gave me no response.
Seconds passed.
Maybe even minutes.
Silence continued expanding around me.
The room felt...
Unwilling to acknowledge my existence.
As though it didn't want me here.
Or perhaps there was simply nothing inside me worth recognizing.
I had just opened my mouth to voice the thought—
When a sharp chime echoed through the chamber.
The darkness swallowed it whole.
A heartbeat later...
Every sphere ignited at once.
They began flickering.
One after another.
As though each was fighting for the right to choose me.
Then...
Darkness again.
A few long seconds passed.
And finally—
The sphere marked with Libra burst into a pale golden glow.
The surrounding darkness swallowed the light almost immediately.
Slowly...
Letters began appearing across the mirror.
One by one.
Forming words.
I froze.
The moment I read them.
“And every hope
is nothing but coincidence.
While a fleeting glance
can feel like fate itself.
We think it rules the universe—
yet all along,
it has rested in our hands.”
I couldn't bring myself to say a single word.
My eyes kept drifting back to the poem.
“What do you see?” Airis asked quietly.
I'll admit it—
The installation had captivated me so completely that I'd momentarily forgotten he was even standing beside me.
I read the poem aloud.
And I swear...
The moment the words left my lips, Airis tensed.
I turned toward him.
He had gone completely still.
There was something unfamiliar in his expression.
Something dangerously close to surprise.
“What kind of reaction is that?” I asked, lifting a brow.
He didn't answer.
The silence immediately put me on edge.
“What did you see?”
A brief pause.
Then, without looking away, he answered,
“The same words.”
I frowned.
“You said that almost never happens.”
Was this another one of his carefully planned tricks to get closer to me?
“I remember exactly what I said,” he replied, his voice noticeably sharper.
I opened my mouth to answer—
But a second clear chime cut through the silence.
My attention snapped back to the glowing spheres.
This time...
Aquarius lit up.
Cold blue light spread across the chamber.
And words began appearing across the mirror with unsettling precision.
“I spent my life condemning uniqueness,
fearing all that shattered my perfect plan.
I called it an enemy—
until, too late,
I learned to call it a friend.”
It felt as though I'd stolen every breath from the room.
Ruel's words had uncovered one of the deepest wounds hidden inside me.
The very first lines demanded reflection.
They made me want to hide.
To shut the world out.
To run.
I sensed Airis moving toward me slowly.
I didn't move.
Not even when his hand settled gently on my shoulder.
“I hate that I can't see it myself,” he said quietly.
A pause.
As though he were searching for the one approach that wouldn't make me fall apart.
“And that I'll have to ask you to read it aloud.”
I hesitated.
Doubted.
Feared.
“If I say it out loud...” I swallowed hard.
“You'll see me as even more pathetic than you already do.”
I bit the inside of my lip, trying to steady myself.
“I have never seen you as pathetic.”
His voice was calm.
Certain.
Unshakable.
“I respect you.
That is one thing I have never questioned.”
I stayed silent.
Still hesitating.
God...
I was such a coward.
When had his opinion of me started mattering this much?
“Ria,” Airis whispered softly.
His fingers tightened just slightly against my shoulder.
After one more moment of hesitation...
I finally surrendered.
And read Ruel's words aloud.
Each sentence felt like a piece of my soul breaking free.
Yet breathing didn't become any easier.
I waited for Airis's reaction.
He didn't answer immediately.
The silence only tightened the knot inside my chest.
Then...
He spoke.
He began to recite:
“Neither dreamer nor warrior—
that is all I have ever been.
For the mask of cowardice
stole every fragment of potential
before I could become more.”
He looked away.
But I couldn’t.
I stared at him openly, unable to tear my eyes away.
Airis stood facing the mirrors, while I was still trying to process the words Ruel had chosen for him.
They didn’t sound like him at all.
As though they had nothing to do with Airis at all.
“What if the mirrors are wrong?” I asked quietly.
Airis stayed silent.
And for once, I hated the silence.
“What if this place is trying to plant false thoughts in our heads?”
This time, he exhaled slowly.
“I really am a coward.”
“Nothing will ever make me believe that,” I cut in immediately.
Airis finally looked back at me.
“When did you start accepting me?”
I paused.
Not for dramatic effect.
Just to give my frantic heart a chance to breathe inside the unbearable tension thickening around us.
“And when did you start choosing to see the best in me?”
Damn.
The words escaped too quickly.
Without thought.
And somehow, hearing them aloud became a revelation to me too.
At that point, no pause in the world could have saved my heart.
“Then…” Airis began.
One step.
And suddenly he was closer.
Dangerously close.
And somehow still too far away.
“When I realized it was becoming harder to keep my defenses up.”
“You keep defenses when someone is capable of hurting you.”
“Yes,” Airis said quietly. “And apparently, you’re capable of hurting my heart.”
“What…” I looked away with a frown, completely losing track of where this conversation had gone. “You could hurt me just as much.”
Something in his gaze darkened.
“Then maybe we should find out which one of us can hurt the other more.”
A small step.
Closer.
But his lips were still too far away.
And before I could stop myself, I erased the distance between us.
For a moment, it felt as though neither of us was breathing.
But that didn’t stop him from taking control.
His hand slid to the back of my neck.
Firm.
Yet impossibly careful.
As though he had been waiting for this for a very long time.
He kissed me with restraint and trembling intensity all at once, like he was trying to memorize me through the kiss itself.
And suddenly, it felt as though someone entirely different stood before me.
Someone softer.
More careful.
And more certain than ever.
His other hand pulled me closer by the waist, against the burning warmth of his body.
The kiss deepened.
And I melted into him,
even while desperately trying to keep my heart restrained.
He pulled away first.
“For my heart, you’re a very real threat, Fireling.”
His voice was quiet.
But his body language said something entirely different:
I don’t want to let you go.
Heat rushed to my face —
only to notice new words appearing in one of the mirrors:
“We are disastrously different,
yet bound by the same truth.
I do not resent fear—
only myself,
for choosing silence
when I should have chosen you.”