ARIA POV
*get this song ready , and play it at the end of the chapter: my tears ricochet - Taylor Swift*
“Lock the doors, Ella. Close your eyes. Both of you.”
My voice didn’t shake.
That was the part that surprised me.
Ella obeyed immediately. I heard the click of the locks, and then nothing but muffled sobbing. Owen cried out once—just my name—before Ella shushed him the way I used to shush them when they were babies. My little girl was so brave.
I turned back to Jasper.
He was breathing hard, chest heaving, eyes blown wide with something feral and unhinged. Naked. Unashamed. Surrounded by warriors who refused to meet my gaze because they knew—they knew—this wasn’t going the way it should.
I rolled my shoulders once. Slow. Measured.
It hurt.
Not sharp pain—worse. The kind that c
