Aria's POV
Aria does not sleep.
She lies awake in the darkness listening to Kael breathe and feeling his hand on her waist. Even in sleep he is possessive. Even unconscious, his body knows she is his and he will not let her go.
The irony is so sharp it cuts.
He is holding her like she might disappear.
She is lying beside him like she is already gone.
Three weeks. She has been here for three weeks and everything the Council trained her to do has crumbled like ash. The seduction was supposed to be simple. Make him fall. Document his weaknesses. Wait for Silas to give the order. Disappear.
But nothing has gone according to plan.
She was supposed to feel nothing.
She was supposed to be a weapon.
She was supposed to gather intelligence and maintain emotional distance and remember that he was just a target. A mission objective. A pawn in a larger game.
Instead, somewhere between the first kiss and the way he looks at her like she is irreplaceable, the mission became meaningless.
Aria traces the line of his jaw with her eyes. She does not touch him because if she touches him she might start crying and she cannot afford to be weak. She cannot afford to break apart just because her heart is splintering into pieces every time he smiles at her.
He is falling in love with her.
She knows because her training taught her to read attraction and desire and emotional attachment. She knows because his eyes track her across rooms even when he thinks she is not looking. She knows because he calls for her in the middle of pack meetings like he cannot function without knowing exactly where she is.
She knows because she would recognize the symptoms in him because she feels them too.
The realization hits her like ice water.
She is falling in love with him.
Not as part of the mission. Not as a calculated move to deepen his trust. But genuinely. Completely. In the way that wrecks you from the inside out and makes you question everything you have ever believed about yourself.
This was not supposed to happen.
The Council was very clear. Love is a tool. Emotion is a liability. The operative must never confuse the mission with personal attachment or the operative becomes useless.
And Aria is becoming useless.
Because every time Silas sends her instructions, every time he asks for updated intelligence, she hesitates. Every time she gathers information that could hurt Kael, a part of her wants to destroy the data instead of sending it.
Three nights ago she almost told him everything.
She stood in the kitchen while he talked to his warriors and the words were right there on her tongue. I came here to destroy you. I was trained to betray you. I have been photographing your files and sending them to people who want you dead.
But then he looked at her and smiled that smile that is reserved only for her and the confession died in her throat.
Because if she told him, he would have to kill her or imprison her or cast her out.
And she could not survive any of those things.
Kael stirs in his sleep and pulls her closer. His arm tightens around her waist like he is afraid even unconscious that she might escape.
If only he knew how badly she wants to stay.
If only he knew how much she wants to believe that she can.
The sun rises and filters through the windows.
Kael's eyes open and he immediately looks for her. Even before he is fully awake, his first instinct is to find her and make sure she is still there.
"Good morning," he says and his voice is rough with sleep.
"Hi," she whispers back.
He pulls her closer and buries his face in her hair. He breathes her in like she is oxygen and he has been suffocating.
"I need to ask you something," he says quietly. "And I need you to be completely honest with me."
Aria's heart stops.
This is it. This is the moment he figured it out. This is where everything collapses.
"Do you trust me," he asks.
It is not what she expected.
She stares at him while her mind tries to process the question. Does she trust him. Yes. Completely. More than she has ever trusted anyone in her life. She trusts him with her body and her heart and increasingly with the truth of who she is.
"Yes," she says and the word comes out like a prayer.
It is the first completely honest thing she has told him since she arrived.
And it is the most dangerous.
Because now he knows that her trust is real. Which means when he discovers that her presence here is not real, the betrayal will destroy him more than anything else could.
"Good," he says and he kisses her forehead. "Because I trust you too, Aria. Completely. And I have a confession to make."
Her entire body goes rigid.
"What," she breathes.
"I love you," he says simply. "I know it is fast. I know it probably seems impossible. But I love you. I love who you are and who you are becoming and who you will be. I love your kindness and your strength and the way you make me believe that good things can still happen."
The words destroy her.
They destroy her because she loves him too and there is no way for this to end that does not involve complete devastation.
She starts to speak. She starts to tell him the truth. But her communication device buzzes silently against her skin.
A message from Silas.
She feels the vibration and her blood goes cold.
"What is wrong," Kael asks immediately.
"Nothing," she says. "I just need to use the bathroom for a moment."
She escapes before he can see her face crack.
In the bathroom, she activates the device and reads the message.
"The Council is ready. Raven's pack will attack the border in three days. We will release the false evidence against you at the full moon gathering. Your mission is nearly complete. Prepare for extraction."
Three days.
In three days, Kael's world will explode.
In three days, the Council will present fabricated evidence that he was involved in his parents' death. In three days, Raven will attack and the pack will fracture under the pressure of both assaults. In three days, Kael will be destroyed.
And Aria will have made it possible.
She looks at her reflection in the mirror and she does not recognize herself anymore.
The woman looking back is someone she does not know. Someone caught between two worlds. Someone who came here to be a weapon and discovered she has a heart.
She returns to the bedroom and Kael pulls her back into his arms.
"I love you," he says again like he is making sure she knows.
"I love you too," she whispers and means it with every broken piece of herself.
And somewhere in the distance, she can feel the clock counting down to the moment when love becomes a knife that cuts both directions.
She can feel the end approaching.
She can feel the moment when Kael will look at her with hate in his eyes and understand that the woman he trusted was the weapon designed to destroy him.
And there is nothing she can do to stop it.
Or is there.
The thought arrives suddenly.
She could warn him. She could tell him what is coming. She could betray the Council the way she has betrayed Kael and give him the information he needs to protect himself.
But if she does that, the Council will come for her.
And Kael would have to choose between his pack and the woman who deceived him.
He would choose the pack.
He would have to.
And Aria would lose him anyway.
So she lies in his arms and lets the weight of her impossible choice crush her slowly.
And she knows that no matter what she does next, someone she loves is going to be destroyed.