Luca’s words hung in the air like the crackling embers of the fire, their weight pressing into Aeliana’s chest. The quiet, contemplative way he spoke—like he had the answers, like he understood something profound—gnawed at her in a way she couldn’t describe.
She stared at the flames, her jaw tightening as her thoughts churned. Fair to myself? Deserve to live? The questions dug at her, pulling at the carefully constructed walls she had built around her mind.
But with every word he had spoken, irritation bubbled up alongside the unease.
What does he even know?
Her grip on the mug tightened, her knuckles whitening. She shot a glare at him, her anger simmering just below the surface. Luca sat there, so composed, so unbothered, as if he held some kind of higher understanding.
It grated on her.
Finally, the frustration broke through.
“What do you even know?!” she snapped, her voice sharp and trembling with barely contained anger.
Luca blinked, his dark eyes flicking to her, his expression unreadable.
“You sit there talking like you’ve got it all figured out,” Aeliana continued, her voice rising. Her hands trembled as she clutched the mug, her emotions spilling out in a torrent she couldn’t control. “Like you’ve unlocked the secret to life or something!”
Luca stayed silent, his gaze steady but calm, which only fueled her irritation further.
“You don’t know anything!” she shouted, her voice cracking. Her chest heaved, and her amber eyes burned with unshed tears. “You don’t know what it’s like to feel like this. To be so weak that you can’t do anything for yourself or the people who depend on you!”
She slammed the mug down onto the ground beside her, the sound ringing sharply through the cavern.
“You’re strong!” she spat, her voice shaking with bitterness. “Of course, you can talk like that—like life is some grand adventure to embrace. You have power. You have talent. You’re not the one stuck in this… this useless body, holding everyone back!”
Her breath came in ragged gasps, her anger burning as hot as the fire between them.
Then her voice rose further, her anger spilling over like a dam that had finally broken. Her chest heaved, and her amber eyes burned with frustration, despair, and something rawer—something that had festered for far too long.
“You must have lived your life as one of the strongest,” she snarled, her voice trembling. “You’ve probably never even had to think about what it feels like to be weak! You don’t know how it feels to try—really try—as hard as you can and still get nothing! To fail over and over again, no matter how much you push yourself!”
Her words came faster now, tumbling over each other in a torrent of emotion. “You’ve never had to watch your father—your own father—look at you like you’re just a piece of garbage. Like you’re a burden he can’t wait to get rid of. Like you’re nothing!”
Her fists clenched tightly, her nails digging into her palms as her voice cracked under the weight of her words. “You’ve never seen the people you love—the people you thought loved you—turn their backs on you. Leave you behind like you were nothing more than a mistake they wish they could forget.”
Her breath hitched, and tears welled in her eyes as she continued, her voice shaking with fury and heartbreak. “Just now, I—” She swallowed hard, her voice faltering for a moment before she pushed on, the bitterness in her tone cutting like a blade. “I was betrayed. By someone I trusted. Someone I thought cared about me. Do you even know how that feels? To be pushed into the abyss by someone you gave your heart to?”
Her words echoed through the cavern, the firelight casting flickering shadows across her trembling form. She was standing now, though she couldn’t remember when she had risen to her feet, her body shaking with the force of her emotions.
“And you—” she pointed at Luca, her voice rising again as she glared at him through tear-filled eyes. “You sit there with that stupid smirk, acting like you have the answers to everything. Like you understand me, like you can just fix everything with your stupid words!”
She let out a harsh, bitter laugh, her voice dripping with venom. “You don’t know anything!”
For a moment, the cavern was silent except for the crackle of the fire and Aeliana’s ragged breathing. Her chest heaved, her hands trembling at her sides as she stared at Luca, daring him to respond, to defend himself, to say anything that would justify the calm, collected way he had been speaking.
But Luca didn’t speak right away. He didn’t snap back or try to argue. He didn’t even smirk. Instead, he simply sat there, his dark eyes watching her with an unreadable expression.
No.
That expression. It was not unreadable.
It was a little different.
That smirk-filled face shifted slightly, the ever-present smirk faltering just enough for Aeliana to notice. His dark eyes, usually so sharp and teasing, seemed distant now as if something within them had dulled. Discover hidden stories at My Virtual Library Empire
He tried to smile, but Aeliana caught it—the faint twitch of his muscles, the way his lips didn’t quite curve naturally.
It wasn’t because he found anything amusing.
She stared at him, and for the first time, she saw something beneath the surface. Something raw and unguarded that he was clearly trying to bury.
It was pain.
Not the sharp, fleeting kind that came and went like a passing wound, but the deep, lingering ache that etched itself into someone’s soul.
And then, the smirk returned to his face.
It was the same on the surface, the same confident, infuriating grin that she had seen so many times before. But now, with her sharpened sensitivity to people’s emotions, she could tell the difference.
It was a mask.
Most people wouldn’t have noticed. Most wouldn’t have looked close enough to see it. But Aeliana did. She had spent so long reading the subtle changes in people’s faces, gauging their reactions to her—to her illness, her scars, her presence. She could see through his façade.
He was hiding.
“Does it matter if I know or not?” Luca asked, his voice softer now but steady.
Aeliana blinked, startled by the question. “What?”
“Do I have to know everything about you,” he said, leaning forward slightly, his dark eyes locking onto hers, “to understand a part of you? Just because someone hasn’t experienced what it feels like to be a sheep, does that mean they can’t empathize with the sheep when they see it being hunted by a wolf?”
His words cut through the haze of her anger, piercing something deeper.
Aeliana hesitated, her chest tightening as she stared at him. “That’s… not the same,” she muttered, though her voice wavered.
“Isn’t it?” Luca asked, his tone calm but unrelenting. “Maybe I don’t know every detail of what you’ve been through. Maybe I’ll never understand exactly how it feels to be you. But that doesn’t mean I can’t see your pain. That I can’t care about it.”
Her breath hitched, her hands trembling at her sides.
“Or, rather.” Luca tilted his head slightly, his dark eyes holding Aeliana’s gaze with unrelenting intensity. “Are you scared?” he asked, his voice low and steady, cutting through the tense air like a blade.
Aeliana stiffened, the question catching her off guard. “Scared?” she echoed, her tone sharp. “Who’s scared?”
His gaze didn’t falter. “Really?” he pressed, his voice calm but insistent. “Are you really not scared? Or are you hiding behind your illness now, trying to use it as a last wall of defense?”
Her breath caught, and her hands clenched into fists at her sides.
“At this point,” Luca continued, leaning forward slightly, his tone unwavering, “have you not already accepted your fate? Are you not just beating around the bush, convincing yourself you’re still fighting, just to feel relevant?”
The words hit her like a physical blow, her chest tightening as anger flared up to mask the ache those words stirred. “What do you know?!” she snapped, her voice trembling with a mixture of fury and hurt.
“I know what I see,” Luca replied, his tone steady. “And what I see is someone who’s trapped—not because of her illness, but because she’s convinced herself that nothing can change.”
“You don’t know how it feels!” Aeliana shouted, her voice cracking as her emotions spilled out. “You don’t know what it’s like to try everything—every treatment, every doctor, every damn thing people tell you to do—and still… still have nothing work!”
Her chest heaved, her amber eyes blazing as tears threatened to spill over.
“What am I supposed to do then, huh?” she continued, her voice breaking. “Just keep trying again and again, over and over? Do you know how tiring that is? Do you know how it feels to pour every ounce of hope you have into something, only to have it crushed every single time?”
Luca stayed silent for a long moment, his gaze dropping to the fire as Aeliana’s words echoed through the cavern. His shoulders rose and fell with a slow breath, and then, almost too quiet to hear, he mumbled something under his breath.
“I know.”
Aeliana blinked, her anger momentarily faltering. “What?” she asked sharply.
But Luca didn’t repeat himself. Instead, he turned his dark eyes back to her, a faint, unreadable smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
“Then,” he said, his tone light but carrying an edge of seriousness, “what if I say you can be cured?”
The words hit her like a thunderclap.