Chapter 83: Beneath the Ash
The darkness beneath the floor was suffocating.
Aria pressed her hand to her mouth to muffle her breathing, every heartbeat thudding like a war drum inside her ribs. Above them, boots moved with calculated aggression — too heavy for scavengers. Too organized. This was something else.
They're hunting her, Aria realized again, the weight of it sinking like stone.
Selene remained coiled behind her, silent and cold, the stillness of a creature born from frost. But Aria could feel it now — barely restrained fury simmering beneath Selene's skin. Not fear. Not panic.
Something older.
Something sharpened by history.
The floor creaked above them.
A voice — gruff, grating — ripped through the tension. "No sign of the girl. You sure she came this way?"
A second voice answered, smoother, crueler. "Oh, I'm sure. I saw the trail. She never was good at covering her tracks."
Selene's body tensed. Her fingers, resting against Aria's side, dug in just slightly.
She knows them.
Aria turned her head the slightest bit, lips brushing against Selene's jaw as she whispered, "Who are they?"
Selene didn't answer.
She couldn't — not without giving them away.
But the answer echoed in the thrum of her pulse: They were hers once.
A third man — young, loud — barked, "This place is a dump. Maybe she froze in her sleep. Or ditched the girl."
A scoff.
"No. Not her. She doesn't leave things behind. Especially not something she's marked."
Laughter.
"Marked?" the younger one repeated. "You think she's still the same freak we knew before?"
That's when Selene moved.
It was subtle. Intentional. Her mouth pressed to Aria's ear, her breath ice-cold. "When I say go — run. Don't stop. Head for the alley we passed, then north toward the old train yard. Follow the riverbed."
Aria twisted. "I'm not leaving you —"
"You will. Because if you don't, you'll die."
The words weren't cruel.
They were final.
A truth sharpened by years Selene never talked about.
Aria opened her mouth to protest again — but Selene's fingers brushed her lips, silencing her. Her eyes — green and burning — met Aria's with something fierce behind them. Something desperate.
"Live," Selene whispered. "That's the only thing I care about."
And then she moved.
A crash erupted above them as Selene burst from the crawlspace, ice blooming in a gust that shattered the floorboards and sent the men stumbling back. Frost curled outward like a living creature, climbing the walls, freezing the air in seconds.
"Holy sh —!"
They didn't finish.
Selene struck.
The first man crumpled under a blow to the throat — swift, clean. The second, the younger one, raised a rifle, but Selene's ice surged up his arm before he could fire. The weapon cracked in half, and he screamed as frost bit into flesh.
Aria scrambled out behind her, stunned by the sudden shift — from stillness to chaos, from silence to war.
"Go!" Selene shouted, without looking back.
Aria's legs obeyed before her mind caught up. She ran — through the ruined hallway, past peeling wallpaper and shattered glass, down the crumbling stairwell and into the freezing dawn.
Behind her, the apartment shuddered with the sound of breaking walls and falling bodies.
She didn't look back.
The alley was slick with frost.
Aria slid as she turned the corner, her shoulder hitting the wall hard, pain blooming beneath her collarbone. She caught herself on a rusted dumpster, heart in her throat.
Gunfire cracked behind her.
Not a burst. Just one shot.
Then silence.
"No…" she whispered, breath fogging in the cold. Her fingers clenched against the metal. "No, no, please —"
She spun, eyes wide with terror, expecting —
"Aria."
The voice came from above.
Selene dropped from a fire escape, landing silently on her feet in front of her, frost steaming from her skin. Blood speckled her cheek. Not hers.
"You're alive," Aria breathed, stumbling forward. "I thought —"
Selene caught her.
Not harshly. Not like before.
This time, she held her like someone holding something precious that had almost been lost.
"I said run," she murmured, forehead resting against Aria's temple.
"I did," Aria said, gripping her tightly. "But I wasn't going to leave you behind."
Selene exhaled slowly, and for a moment, her weight sagged into Aria like she'd let go of something heavy. "You should have."
"No," Aria said. "Not again."
Another pause. Then Selene pulled back, just enough to study her face. "You're hurt."
"Not badly."
Selene's gaze flicked to her shoulder, then down the alley. "We need to keep moving. More will come."
"They were hunting you," Aria said, her voice low. "Weren't they?"
Selene hesitated.
Then nodded.
"They knew you."
"They used to follow me," Selene said. "Before I left."
"You were one of them?"
"No. But I was theirs. Once."
The words were hollow. Ash on her tongue. She began walking, and Aria fell into step beside her, wrapping her arms around her middle to hold in the tremble building in her core.
"They talked like you were… marked," Aria said. "What did they mean?"
"They think I'm cursed," Selene said simply. "A freak with too much power and no place in their world. They wanted to use me. To control what I am."
"And what are you?" Aria asked, stopping in the middle of the alley.
Selene turned slowly, her green eyes shining in the icy light.
"Something they couldn't break."
They reached the train yard by noon.
Rusting tracks split the cracked earth like forgotten veins. Cars lay on their sides, half - sunken in frost and overgrowth. Birds circled high above, the only witnesses to the silence.
Selene led Aria to a half - collapsed maintenance shed tucked beneath a skeletal overpass. It wasn't warm. It wasn't safe. But it was shelter.
Aria collapsed to the ground, her breath ragged. Her limbs still trembled with adrenaline and cold. "We'll have to keep running, won't we?"
"Yes," Selene said, leaning against the wall opposite her. "They won't stop."
Aria watched her, the rise and fall of her chest, the blood drying on her sleeve. "But why now? Why come after you again?"
"Because I've taken something from them."
Aria frowned. "What?"
Selene's eyes lifted. And in them — simmering beneath the ice — was a heat Aria hadn't seen before. Not in combat. Not even during their night together.
"You," Selene said.
The word landed heavy.
Aria's heart stuttered. "I'm not something you take."
"I know," Selene said, stepping forward. "But to them, you're leverage. Bait. Proof I can still feel."
"And can you?" Aria whispered.
Selene crouched in front of her, cupping her cheek. "You're the only thing that does."
The frost didn't vanish from Selene's skin. But for the first time, it didn't hurt to touch. It didn't burn. It felt… right.
Aria leaned into her hand.
And in the hollow quiet of the train yard, surrounded by ash and ruin, something shifted between them.
Not fire.
Not ice.
But the fragile warmth of two people surviving, together.