Fire in the Snow
Aria's POV
The nightmare hit me like a freight train.
I was standing in snow that glowed orange from flames dancing all around me. A house was burning - not just burning, but screaming as the fire ate it alive. The smell of smoke choked my lungs and made my eyes water.
People were running everywhere, their voices mixing with the crackle of burning wood. But I couldn't move. My feet were frozen to the ground like tree roots.
"Help us!" someone cried from inside the burning house. "Please, somebody help us!"
I tried to run toward the flames, but my legs wouldn't work. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
Then I saw him.
A boy with dark hair and golden eyes was trapped under a fallen beam inside the house. The fire was getting closer to him, licking at his clothes like hungry tongues. He was trying to push the heavy wood off his chest, but he wasn't strong enough.
"I have to save him!" I shouted, finally finding my voice. "I have to help him!"
But the harder I tried to move, the deeper my feet sank into the snow. The boy's golden eyes met mine through the flames, and I saw something impossible there.
He knew me. And somehow, impossibly, I knew him too.
The fire roared louder, reaching for him with burning fingers—
"I have to save him!" I screamed, bolting upright in bed.
My heart hammered against my ribs like a caged bird trying to escape. Sweat dripped down my face even though the room was cold. The nightmare felt so real I could still smell smoke in my hair.
The door burst open, and Kael rushed in looking panicked. His hair was messy like he'd been sleeping, and his golden eyes were wide with worry.
"Aria! What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
I stared at him, my mouth hanging open like a broken door. Those eyes. Those same golden eyes from my nightmare. The boy trapped under the burning beam had been Kael.
"I... I had a dream," I whispered, my voice shaking. "About a fire. A house burning down."
Kael went completely still. The color drained from his face like water from a broken cup.
"What kind of fire?" he asked quietly.
"A big one. People were screaming and running. And there was a boy with golden eyes trapped inside..." I trailed off, studying his face. "It was you, wasn't it? You were the boy in the fire."
Kael's hands clenched into fists at his sides. "You shouldn't be able to remember that."
"Remember?" My heart skipped a beat. "You mean it really happened? It wasn't just a nightmare?"
"Dr. Frost said he erased all your memories of that night," Kael muttered, more to himself than to me. "How is this possible?"
"What night? Kael, what are you talking about?"
He sat down heavily on the edge of my bed, his shoulders sagging like he was carrying the weight of the world.
"The night your father burned down my house," he said in a voice so quiet I had to lean forward to hear him. "The night he killed my family."
Ice water ran through my veins. "I was there?"
"You were in the car with your father's men. Watching. I saw you through the window right before the roof collapsed on me."
"But in my dream, I was trying to save you. I wanted to help you."
Kael looked up at me with those haunted golden eyes. "You were trying to get out of the car. Fighting with the men holding you back. Screaming for them to stop the fire."
My hands started shaking. "I tried to save you?"
"You were just a kid. Maybe thirteen years old. There was nothing you could have done."
"But I tried?" I pressed, needing to know. "Even though you were a stranger, I tried to help you?"
"Yes." His voice was so soft I almost missed it. "You tried."
Something warm and painful bloomed in my chest. Even without my memories, some part of me had recognized him. Some part of me had cared about a boy I'd never met.
"How did you survive?" I asked.
"My older brother pulled me out just before the whole house came down. He died two days later from his burns, but he saved me first."
Tears rolled down my cheeks. "Kael, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry my father did that to you. I'm sorry I couldn't stop it."
"It wasn't your fault," he said, but his voice sounded thick with emotion. "You were just a child."
"Is that why you look at me sometimes like you've seen a ghost? Because you remember me from that night?"
Kael nodded slowly. "When I first saw you in the crashed car, it was like seeing you all over again. The same dark hair. The same worried expression. The same desperate need to help people, even when it puts you in danger."
We stared at each other in the dim light. Something electric passed between us - recognition, maybe, or understanding. Like two puzzle pieces finally clicking together.
"Aria," Kael said softly, "I need you to know something. Even though your father destroyed my life, you're not him. You're nothing like him."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because I've been watching you for three days. You save spiders. You worry about strangers screaming. You tried to save me when you were thirteen, and you'd try to save me now if I needed it."
My heart did something strange and fluttery. "What does that mean? For us, I mean?"
Kael opened his mouth to answer, but before he could speak, a sound cut through the night like a knife.
Car engines. Multiple ones. Roaring up the mountain road like angry beasts.
Kael shot to his feet, his whole body going tense. "No. Not yet. They can't have found us this fast."
"Who?" I whispered, fear creeping up my spine like cold fingers.
Kael rushed to the small window and peered out. What he saw there made him curse under his breath.
"Your father's men," he said grimly. "At least six cars. Maybe more."
The engine sounds got closer and louder. Through the window, I could see headlight beams cutting through the darkness like searching eyes.
Kael spun around and headed for the door. "Get dressed. Now. We have to go."
"Go where?"
"Anywhere but here." He disappeared for a moment, then came back carrying a rifle and a pistol. His movements were quick and deadly serious.
"Kael, you're scaring me."
"Good. You should be scared." He checked his weapons with practiced hands. "If Vincent Santoro's men catch us, they'll kill me slowly and drag you back to your father. Neither of those things can happen."
The car engines were so close now I could hear individual vehicles. Doors slamming. Men shouting orders.
"They found us," Kael said, his golden eyes flashing with something wild and dangerous. "Stay behind me and don't make a sound."