Aria really wanted to know what the trade agreement with the Moon Goddess was. If anything, she expected the Moon Goddess to want something in exchange like constant worship, ceremonial sacrifices, or something along those lines.
Then again, did she really have a place to judge when human deities are all over the place? It just confused her on how she got chosen for all of this. Did the gods hold convention every thousand years or so and pick whichever humans they wanted to use? Or was the Moon Goddess really the final judge and humans were just that far behind?
Either way, the prospect of a soul mate, the prospect of forever scared the hell out of her.
When Aria heard the garage open, she immediately sat up from her position on the bed. As she left to go to the foyer, she was met with Carmen’s pissy face, followed with the same expressions from Leila and the boys.
“How did it go?” Aria asked and saw that Mira wasn’t with them.
“She wasn’t there and we didn’t find any leads either.” Carmen spat. “It was all clean.”
No way.
“How’d it all go down?” Aria asked the group to see who would answer her.
“We went in as planned,” Adrian informed her. “Carmen and Leila scouted the back and the cellar and found nothing. No leads, no scents, no visuals, nothing.”
“We even stopped by the auto shop after the initial team for a double sweep, but there wasn’t anything else either.” Carmen’s frustration was clear. “Not a f*cking thing.”
“How’d you guys get into the apartment?”
“They left the windows to the garage open,” Leila explained. “We searched through the whole house, and the only thing we were able to confirm was that Eva does live there but that’s about it.”
“I’ve got to tell my dad what happened. Adrian, you better come along too. They’ll want a debrief.”
Adrian nodded and she watched as Nick and Leila try to decompress by the couch. Aria didn’t know all the details of the investigation, but the fact that they didn’t find anything meant that this was a failure, and that they were heading back to square one with no leads, no information, nothing.
Aria’s guilt increased tenfold at this. She proposed the idea of an auto shop and once information started to click together, everyone got so excited that they didn’t want to believe that this mission would fail.
“How could we find nothing?” Nick muttered so lowly that she almost didn’t hear him.
“It’s okay, we’ll figure it out. We have to.” Leila rubbed his back soothingly.
“What if she’s being tortured right now? Or worse . . . I can’t live with myself if she comes back barely alive, Leila.”
“Mira’s a strong girl, she’ll make it. She has to.”
“But what if she’s never the same?”
What if Mira comes back as a different person?
The thought terrified her. What sort of trauma was Mira being subjected to? At best, she was just being held captive in a decent environment with food and minimal mind games. At worst . . .
Aria didn’t know if she could handle seeing the worst.
Aria bit back the urge to cry from disappointment.
She didn’t want to lose her best friend.
She couldn’t lose the person who gave a sh*t about her life when it was a complete disaster. When her mom died and they moved away from what she felt safe with; when her dad started working himself to the bone at odd hours during the night and she would never see him; when Aria wasn’t capable of being alone and was screaming ever so silently for someone to help ‘fix it’ . . .
That was when Mira came along.
She was so loud, so brash, and so lively.
Aria hated it.
She hated how Mira was able to outshine everyone in the room without even trying. Or how Mira was able to keep a pleasant smile on her face most of the time. Or how attentive Mira was whenever she talked to someone, anyone, and she looked like she actually gave a sh*t.
Mira was everything Aria wasn’t.
Mira was everything she hated.
Mira was everything that Aria wanted to be again.
The girl wiggled her way into Aria’s bubble. It was uncomfortable for a while. Aria didn’t even try to extend an olive branch; in fact, she burnt it the first time Mira tried reaching out.
Thankfully, that didn’t stop her. Instead of looking and inspecting the ashes, Mira found another branch to poke her with until she responded, and for the longest time, Aria didn’t believe in her sincerity. She didn’t want to believe that Mira genuinely wanted to be her friend. Aria just wanted to think that Mira was bored, that she was just getting her sick kicks out of her for the month.
But that wasn’t Mira.
Mira’s persistence got to her.
She didn’t leave after Aria practically threw the girl under the bus during projects, or when Aria gave her the could shoulder. Mira still stood there, when anyone else would’ve left.
It was impossible for Aria to stand against someone so brilliant. Someone who saw her cries for help and listened to her weep. Someone who could feel the invisible scars and offer a bandage. Someone who felt her pain and cried with her.
Mira did something that Aria didn’t even do for herself.
She lent her a shoulder and allowed her to grieve.
She gave her a chance to understand that it’s okay to not be okay.
She gave her the opportunity to breathe again.
Chapter
