Aiden’s fingers clenched, and his eyes turned cold. However, Selene, too drunk on her supposed victory, didn’t notice. She simply wanted to keep savouring the moment, sharing how she achieved it again and again. "Aye ... I never thought this would be this easy," she said with a smug. "But believe me, I don’t mind even if it had been difficult. Because you are all worth it." She took her steps closer to him, her fingers reaching out to trace the line of his arm. But before she could even brush the air around him, her wrist was seized in an iron grip. The hold was merciless, cruelly deliberate —meant only to inflict pain. Selene gasped and winced, but Aiden didn’t flinch. His gaze bore into her, sharp and brutal. "I told you, Selene," his voice dropped, deadly quiet. "Don’t play your games around her. I won’t tolerate it." Her features twisted in agony, and it seemed like she might cry from the unbearable pain. But she didn’t. Instead, a slow smile crept on her lips ---eerie and unhinged. Her eyes glimmered with something darker, something deranged. "Don’t you want to know," she whispered, almost tauntingly, "what game did I actually play?" Her words echoed with the madness of someone who had lost their last ounce of sanity. "Trust me, Aiden ... You will regret not knowing it." Aiden didn’t respond. But the furrow between his brows deepened, betraying his unease. When Selene saw him like that, her smile widened. She lifted her free hand, aiming to touch his face. But once again, she failed. Aiden turned his head smoothly, letting her hand cut through empty air. That rejection ... all over again —sliced Selene deeper than his grip ever could. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs N0velFire.ɴet For a flicker of a second, her fury surged through her veins at his indifference. But then she remembered how Arwen was going to be out of the picture. With her gone, Aiden would belong to her anyway. She didn’t mind waiting a little more. She gritted through the pain of his hold when she felt him tighten his fingers around her wrist. But once again curling her lips into a chilling smile, she stared at him. "Isn’t she the Moon you have always cherished in your heart?" she asked —not to confirm, but to wound. To remind it where it all began. Aiden froze, just for a second. His pulse kicked as his mind raced through the possibilities, through everything Selene might have planned with that single piece of knowledge. Selene’s smile widened as she slowly nodded. "Yes, I knew from the very first day. From the moment you called her Moon, I knew it was ... her." Her voice trembled with obsession; the last word grated through clenched teeth. "But I couldn’t accept it." She shook her head violently, lips jutting out in a mock pout. "So, I didn’t what I always wanted to turn into real." She paused, only to let her eyes glitter with excitement. "I became the moon in your heart —the love of your life you have always cherished." Aiden’s grip around her wrist slackened only for a split second. His chest tightened as the pieces fell into place. Selene seized the chance and yanked her wrist free. Angry red marks flared across her skin, and she knew it would bruise to a swollen blue before long. But she didn’t care. Right now, she was too happy to feel any pain. She spun lightly on her heel, twirling once like a ballerina on stage. "Yes! Finally —I became the girl I always dreamed of becoming." Her voice rang with success. "And ..." she paused dramatically, glancing back at him, her smile wicked. "Given how easily she believed me, I knew you must have told her about it yourself. Too bad she lost her memories to remember it at all. She —" Her words died in her throat. Before she could finish, Aiden’s hand clamped around her neck, pushing her against the wall, hard and rough. His grip steel, his eyes burning with barely contained fury. "Selene, you haven’t realized what you have dared to do today," his words laced with a threat that promised the worst of all, and his voice low and lethal. Selene clawed at his hand, her face flushing as oxygen slipped away. However, Aiden’s grip around her throat never loosened. Instead, it only grew intense. "You think you can pretend to be her? Or do you think I would let your lie ruin the one thing I cherish most in the world?" Tears slipped from the corner of her eyes as she tried to remove his hand. "You ... you can’t ... do anything, Aiden," she said, a faint smile tugging at her lips. "You ... can’t tell her the ... truth. If you do, you would lose her, w-wouldn’t you?" She might not know the details but she knew what was stopping Aiden from revealing the truth to Arwen. And that one thing was purely in her advantage. If the truth can be said, that means the lie would prevail. The lie that would sooner become the only reality. The gaze blurred, but she still laughed, celebrating. "You can’t ... tell that I ... lied. And until ... you tell her the truth, she ... wouldn’t believe in anything. And if you tell her, she would ... die. Either way ... you are fated to lose her, Aiden. Accept it already." Aiden wanted to ruin her in that very moment. The grip of his fingers around her neck only grew intense. But just when he would have ended her for good, a voice stopped him. "Aiden, what are you doing?" Morgan’s voice cut in. But just when Selene thought he was there to speak for her, she heard him say. "Arwen had left like that. Should you be going after her?" And those words reminded Aiden. Arwen had left. He didn’t linger there for another moment. Letting go of Selene, he turned to rush to find her. Selene tried to grab his hand, to hold him back. But except for air, nothing else came into her grasp.