Burn What You Were

Aria stared at Kael like he was a stranger.

He claimed he rejected her to protect her.

But she'd bled for that rejection. Suffered.

And now he expected her to believe he was still on her side?

No.

Not anymore.

"I don't care about your reasons," Aria said, her voice quiet but sharp. "You still left me to fall apart."

Kael opened his mouth, but she raised her hand.

"You don't get to speak for me. Not now. Not ever again."

The witch placed a hand on Aria's shoulder. "The vision you saw — it's not set in stone. But your choices from here will shape what comes."

Ronan stepped beside her, ever solid, ever steady.

"What do I have to do?" Aria asked.

The witch's eyes glittered. "Burn the part of yourself that still doubts. The pain, the fear — the old Aria must die… if the moon-heir is to rise."

She turned to the fire and extended her hand.

A new flame roared to life — silver and white, pure and pulsing.

Aria stepped toward it.

"Place your past in the flame," the witch said. "Everything you thought you were."

Aria hesitated. Then she reached up, unfastening the chain around her neck — the one that still held Kael's rejected mark. The one she'd clung to like a wound.

She stared at it for a long moment.

Then, she threw it into the fire.

The flame flared, and a wave of heat swept through the room, but Aria didn't flinch. Instead, something deep inside her snapped free.

It was done.

The past was gone.

She turned to Kael, eyes glowing faintly silver.

"You don't get to define me anymore," she said. "I do."

Kael looked devastated.

But he didn't argue.

He couldn't.

Because the woman standing before him wasn't the mate he rejected.

She was the Alpha o

f her own fate now.

And the storm… was just beginning.