Chapter 27: That Which Burns, That Which Freezes
The room was dim, lit only by the dying glow of city lights seeping through a broken blind. Outside, the world was still cracked open, humming with chaos and the distant groan of things falling apart. Inside, though — it was heat and trembling restraint. It was skin against skin, breath caught between moments, and two bodies suspended in something too fragile to name.
Aria stirred first, curled against Selene like a flickering ember seeking the shelter of snow. Her breath was hot against Selene's collarbone, damp with fever and soft with the kind of intimacy that never used to exist between them. Her skin, flushed and glistening, practically radiated heat — magic pulsing just beneath the surface, thick and aching, wrapping the room in something that felt half - alive and half - lost.
Selene lay beside her in silence, rigid at first, barely daring to move. Just breathing. Just being. But every inhale made it harder to keep her hands still. Her arm, already tucked beneath Aria's waist, shifted instinctively, fingers splayed across fevered skin. The chill of her touch met the blaze of Aria's body like frost kissing the rim of a burning cup.
It still wasn't enough.
Not anymore.
Selene didn't realize how close she was to unraveling until she felt Aria shift again, a faint murmur escaping her lips. "Selene…"
Her name. A whisper. A plea.
Selene turned her head, her heartbeat suddenly thunderous. "What is it?"
Aria blinked up at her, dazed, the fog of heat still clinging to her lashes. Her eyes were liquid and distant, but they found Selene anyway. Her hand trembled as it reached up and curled into the front of Selene's shirt. She was searching — for coolness, for comfort, for her.
"You feel so good," she said, voice hoarse and low, thick with something raw. "So cold. I want it again…"
Selene froze. Her pulse stilled. That voice — it was more than longing. It was hunger disguised as helplessness. Desire tangled up in the fever. And Selene felt her control peel away in layers.
Her instincts screamed yes. But her mind — the part of her that remembered what Aria had forgotten — held her back. "Aria," she said, softly, carefully, "we should wait."
Aria's fingers clenched into her shirt.
"I want to kiss you again."
That did it.
Selene kissed her.
Not with panic. Not with desperation. This time it was careful, exploratory. Slow enough to memorize. Gentle enough to savor. Her lips met Aria's in a breathless hush, like they were still pretending the world outside hadn't ended.
Selene let Aria lead at first — let her set the pace. But Aria's mouth parted again, and the soft, wrecked sound that followed —
"Please…"
— turned Selene inside out.
She deepened the kiss, her tongue brushing against Aria's with cautious reverence. The moment their tongues touched, Aria melted into her like wax to flame. Her body arched slightly, her legs shifting, wrapping around Selene with a slow drag that set her nerves alight.
Everything about her burned.
Selene's hands slipped to Aria's waist, fingers sliding across fevered skin, not quite daring to explore but unable to stay still. The kiss became everything. Their lips moved in tandem — slow, drugging, addictive — like they were trying to drink something they didn't know they'd been thirsting for.
Aria clung tighter. Pressed closer.
Her moans were soft, barely - there things, but each one lanced through Selene like lightning. Every whimper felt like a secret being confessed. Every shift of her hips like a demand Selene could barely refuse.
She kissed her again. And again. And again.
And still it wasn't enough.
Their legs tangled under the thin sheet. Aria's thigh brushed between Selene's, and Selene bit back a groan, her restraint unraveling in real time. She was cold. She was ice. She was supposed to know better. But Aria — Aria was fire, and Selene had never learned how to stop chasing it.
God, she wanted her.
But Aria didn't remember. Not all of it. Not yet. She didn't know the full truth, the scars and the silence between them. The way Selene had once broken her heart to protect her from something worse.
Selene pulled back, panting.
Her forehead dropped to Aria's, lips still brushing hers as she whispered, "I can't…"
But Aria kissed her again.
Softer. Hungrier.
Her hands slid up Selene's back, slipping beneath her shirt, burning every inch of skin they found. Selene's breath hitched. Her body shuddered. Every nerve came alive in Aria's hands, and her mind drowned beneath the tide.
"You help me," Aria said between kisses, her words fogging against Selene's lips. "Please don't stop…"
Her voice wasn't begging — it was trusting.
That made it so much worse.
Selene didn't say yes. She just gave in again.
She kissed Aria until the ache became something holy. Until the heat between them shifted into something deeper. More intimate. She kissed her mouth, then her jaw, then the soft curve beneath her ear, tasting the salt and magic of her sweat. Her lips slid down Aria's throat, slow and reverent, cooling her with each press of cold against heat.
Aria gasped beneath her, head tilted back, breath shivering.
Selene learned her all over again.
Where she trembled when kissed just right. Where she sighed. Where her hands instinctively clutched at Selene's shoulders, her sides, her hips. Selene traced every new sound like it was sacred. Like they were writing a language made only of breath and skin and the moments between heartbeats.
But even as desire threatened to consume her, Selene's hands never moved lower.
They didn't wander.
Didn't take.
They gripped the sheets.
Her self - control clung there like a final anchor, like the last remnant of a promise she refused to break. She wouldn't touch Aria like that. Not until Aria knew everything.
Not until Aria chose her fully.
Still, Aria moved against her — pressing, arching, aching. Selene felt every shift, every brush of heat, every heartbeat slamming against her chest like a threat.
Her lips ghosted back up to Aria's, kissing her one last time, before resting her forehead against her shoulder, breath ragged.
"I like you too much," she whispered, voice breaking, "to touch you like that when you don't know me yet."
Aria didn't push.
Didn't protest.
She only curled into her — head tucked beneath Selene's chin, arms soft around her waist, her body finally stilling in the safety of Selene's cold. Her breath slowed. Her heat cooled, just a little. Just enough.
"…Stay," she whispered, voice barely there.
Selene's arms tightened around her.
And she stayed.
No more kisses. No more fire. Just limbs entangled beneath a city that had forgotten peace, in a room where two girls clung to something as fragile as hope.
Outside, the world remained broken. Distant sirens wailed in echoes. The ruin pressed in at the edges of dawn. But here, in this room, time dared to soften. And Selene let herself forget everything except the weight of Aria in her arms.
The girl who burned like the end of everything was safe.
And Selene — the girl who thought herself made of ice and guilt and nothing else — realized something had changed.
The frost inside her was melting.
Not all at once.
Not in fire.
But slowly.
In the gentleness of quiet pleas. In kisses that asked nothing and gave everything. In the way Aria — who didn't even remember the truth — still reached for her, still trusted her, still whispered her name like a tether.
Selene let herself close her eyes.
She didn't know what tomorrow would bring. What memories would return. What it would mean when Aria remembered what Selene had done to protect her. What she'd sacrificed.
But for tonight —
She was the cold that calmed the blaze.
And Aria… was finally warm enough to sleep.