C2 **CHAPTER 2 — The Cathedral of Echoes**
Not the dizzy, spinning kind of blur Aria experienced after standing up too quickly, but a tearing distortion, like reality was made of thin fabric and the man pulling her through the alley had ripped it open.
Her feet barely grazed the ground as they moved. He wasn’t running. He was warping. One moment, the alley stretched ahead, filled with shadows leaping toward them. Next, her stomach dropped as they flickered to the street's other end, the world snapping around them like a shaken photograph struggling to refocus.
Aria's hand burned where it grasped his.
She gasped and stumbled. “What, what are you doing? This isn’t possible.”
“It’s dangerous to talk right now.”
For the first time, his voice was strained.
“Dangerous? You don’t say!”
Behind them, the shadows hissed. Following closely.
He pulled her tighter, his grip like iron. “Hold on.”
Reality twisted again.
A flash.
A cold blast of wind and darkness. And an old stone staircase appeared beneath their feet.
Aria gasped for breath as her vision caught up. The world finally settled.
They stood at the base of a hill outside of town. Trees loomed like skeletal guardians. And above them quiet, hollow, ancient.
The abandoned cathedral.
Its tall stone arches were cracked. Ivy hung over shattered stained-glass windows. The bell tower leaned slightly, as if weary from centuries of holding secrets.
Aria’s entire body trembled. “Why are we here?”
The man didn’t answer right away. He scanned the treeline with sharp, predatory focus, watching for any sign of pursuit.
Only when he seemed satisfied did he let go of her hand.
Aria staggered back as if released from a wire.
The burning in her wrist eased, but didn’t completely fade away.
The stranger finally turned toward her.
His pale eyes appeared brighter in the moonlight, reflecting shards of silver like something not meant to walk under the sun.
“My name is Lucian,” he said quietly.
Aria swallowed hard. “And I’m supposed to trust you just because you finally told me your name?”
“No.”
His tone was calm, nearly devoid of emotion.
“You only need to trust that you’re not safe anywhere else.”
Aria hugged her arms around herself. Her pulse raced like a wild drumbeat. “What were those things?”
Lucian stepped past her toward the cathedral door. “You’ll understand soon.”
“That’s not an answer!”
He paused at the entrance.
His voice dropped to a whisper. “No, it’s not. But knowing the truth too soon could shatter your sanity.”
Aria gazed at him in disbelief.
“This is madness,” she murmured.
“Yes,” Lucian answered. “Yet, it is happening.”
He pushed open the cathedral doors.
A wave of cold, dusty air rushed out.
Despite her apprehension, Aria found herself moving forward, trailing after him inside. The cathedral enveloped the dark, echoing, ancient.
Moonlight poured through the shattered stained glass windows in fragmented beams. Dust floated gently like slow falling snowflakes. The air was thick with the scent of stone and forgotten prayers. Aria had always disliked old buildings.
Tonight, she couldn’t tell if the cathedral resented her presence.
She tread carefully. “How do you know this place will keep me safe?”
Lucian glanced back at her. “Because this cathedral was built by your mother.”
Aria froze in place.
Her throat constricted. “My… what?”
He continued into the shadows as though he were simply making a casual remark.
Aria felt her legs shake as she followed him deeper into the vast, silent hall.
“My mother passed away when I was seven,” she said. “She was just an ordinary human. She made pancakes shaped like flowers. She didn’t construct cathedrals or battle monsters.”
Lucian halted his steps.
He turned slowly to face her.
His expression was inscrutable, but his eyes carried a weight, a hint of sorrow.
“Aria,” he said gently, “everything you think you know about your mother is false.”
The cathedral suddenly felt much colder.
Aria shook her head vehemently. “No. No, that’s, you don’t know anything about her.”
Lucian moved closer, but not in a threatening way, more like he recognized that she was on the edge of something within herself.
“I know,” he replied, “that she wasn’t human. I know she ruled a realm older than any kingdom in this world. And I know she died protecting you.”
Aria’s heartbeat echoed in her ears.
“You’re lying.” Yet those words felt feebler than she intended.
Lucian lowered his voice further. “Your mother concealed you here, in the human world, far from the realms where her enemies sought both her and you.”
Aria stumbled backward until her back hit a cold pillar.
“No… My mother… She died in a fire.”
Lucian looked away for a moment, his jaw clenched tightly. “That is the deception she created to shield you.”
Aria’s vision blurred with unshed tears that she refused to let fall.
Everything inside her revolted: the shadows, the mark on her wrist, the phone call, the creature in the alley.
They couldn’t all be connected.
It couldn’t possibly be real.
Aria pressed a trembling hand to her forehead. “Stop. Please.”
Lucian stepped back to give her some space. “I won’t force you to believe me, but I can’t let you leave.”
“That sounds like kidnapping,” Aria retorted sharply.
“Not kidnapping, protection.”
His gaze darkened.
“If those creatures find you, they will tear your soul apart and won’t stop hunting.”
Aria shivered at his words.
Lucian moved deeper into the cathedral, heading toward the altar, which was bathed in moonlight.
There, etched into the wall behind it.
A symbol pulsed faintly with silver light,
the same shape as the mark on Aria’s wrist.
Her breath caught in her throat. “What… is that?”
Lucian didn’t touch the glowing symbol; he stood before it with a nearly reverent distance.
“That,” he said, “is the first echo of your curse.”
Aria froze in shock. “Curse? What curse?”
He turned to her, his voice softening, yet the weight of his words felt as heavy as stone.
“The curse you were born with is the reason those creatures have followed you and why I’ve been watching over you for years.”
A chill ran down her spine.
“You’ve been watching me?” Aria whispered in disbelief.
Lucian neither flinched nor denied it.
“Yes.”
That single word hung between them, dark and oppressive.
“Why?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Because I’m bound to you,” Lucian replied simply.
Aria’s heart stumbled over itself. “Bound… how?”
Lucian took a slow step forward until only a few feet separated them.
“In your mother’s final hours,” he said softly, “she made me swear an oath: to protect you, to keep you hidden, to keep you alive.”
Aria’s knees grew weak; she leaned against the pillar for support.
She whispered, “Why me?”
Lucian's expression remained unchanged, but something flickered in his eyes, something deep and conflicted.
He raised a hand slowly, not touching her but hovering near the faintly glowing mark on her wrist.
“Because,” he murmured, “you are the heir to a power older than the realms themselves.”
Aria felt her pulse racing.
The mark on her wrist throbbed with a sharp heat as a soft light seeped beneath her skin.
Aria yanked her hand back. “Stop, please stop saying these things.”
"But the heat intensified.
Lucian’s expression hardened. “Your curse is reacting.” Aria gasped as warmth surged up her arm, bright and blinding even through her sleeve.
“I can’t, It hurts.”Lucian gently but firmly grasped her shoulders. “Aria. Look at me.” She couldn’t; her vision wavered too much. “Aria.” His voice sliced through the panic like a knife through mist.
She forced herself to meet his gaze. Cold. Pale. Steadfast.
He lifted his hand and placed it. Carefully, yet surprisingly gently, over her glowing wrist.
A jolt surged through both of them. Aria cried out, and Lucian hissed quietly under his breath as if the power burned him, too. Silver light flared between their hands, bright, pulsing, alive.
The cathedral trembled. Aria felt something erupt from within the mark, like trapped energy bursting free. Her knees buckled, but Lucian held her steady, drawing her close to prevent her from collapsing. Aria gasped, gripping his shirt with her free hand. “Make it stop!”
“I’m trying,” he replied through clenched teeth. Their joined hands radiated brighter and brighter until the light filled the entire hall. Then, a sharp crack echoed through the cathedral air. Aria screamed, and Lucian tightened his grip.
The world flashed white.
