Page 1 of Aria's Ascension

Chapter 1

Aria clutched at her head, trying to breathe through the deluge of memories flooding her mind. A flash of swirling, golden eyes inundated her with feelings of happiness, devotion, and utter trust. Glowing, blue eyes filled her with peace and sharp-edged need, in equal measure. White eyes, set in a scarred face, sparked yearning so intense it hurt.

Each memory, each emotion built upon the last, layering and growing instead of canceling each other out. How could she feel so much? How could her heart possibly hold so much without shattering? And, yet, with every flash, she felt stronger, felt herself becoming whole, as though those memories held missing pieces she hadn’t even known to search for.

Faster and faster, the images rose up, surfacing from the depths of the dark, suffocating water fighting to pull them back down.

Purple skies. Fighting. Zhrovni.

Pain. Anger. Desire.

Need. Resolve.

Love.

Heart-wrenching, all-consuming love. The kind that was only supposed to exist in books and fairytales, but she felt it. To the depths of her soul, she felt it.

All at once, like a thunderclap only she could hear, the memories coalesced.

Sucking in a sharp breath, Aria jerked her head up and stared at her partner, Foster, in wide-eyed silence for a long second, her heart hammering in her chest.

Tirox. Kix. The dragon. The arena.

The office around her grew hazy, her fellow FBI agents milling about suddenly muted.

This isn’t real. None of this is real. This is a simulation. It has to be.

The need to find a way out of there and get back to her men battered at her, flooding her with anxiety. She didn’t even know if it was possible. Zhrovni might try to keep her trapped there indefinitely. She didn’t know what he was capable of.

What if he found out the suppression had fractured? Could he wipe her mind again? Erase her memories of Tirox and Kix permanently so that, even if she found a way free, she wouldn’t remember them?

What if she lost them? What if she looked right at them and didn’t know how important they were to her? Would she even recognize them? Would some part of her know how much they meant to her?

What if she forgot she loved them before she’d even had a chance to say it out loud or act on it?

No. She wouldn’t—couldn’t—let that happen.

She wanted to leap to her feet, to act, to dosomethingto fight her way out of this place, but just as she was about to get up, she twitched sharply, and the urgency was gone, like mist dissipating under the heat of the sun.

Gazing around, she still knew what she saw wasn’t real and that she needed to get out, but the hurry to leave had left.

Aria blinked slowly and settled back into her chair, frowning as she tried to focus.Whydid she want to leave? She should stay here. Her men were fine. Of course, they were fine.

No. That wasn’t right, was it? She definitely had… something she needed to do.

A thought, quiet and slippery, passed through her mind.

She remembered something? No, not remembered. Realized. Yes, she realized something—something as important as returning to her men, something damn near as devastating as the thought of losing them.

What, though?

It was there, this essential, compulsory thing she needed to do, she just couldn’t quite grasp it.

What could be as important as getting out of here?

It was there, flitting about like a butterfly…

Oh! My parents. Foster. My brother. Yes. That feels… right? I should tell them I’m leaving.

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