Song of the chapter: BIRDS OF A FEATHER 
AURORA'S POV: 
   My lungs are burning and each breath claws up my throat like fire, but I don’t stop running. I don’t care where I’m going just away. Away from the field, away from the school, away from him.
Arc.
    His name slams into my skull like a hammer and I stumble, nearly tripping over a raised sidewalk edge. A car honks as I cross the street without looking, tires screeching. Someone shouts, but their voice is a distant blur. I’m already gone.
    I sprint down alleyways and winding streets until I reach the edge of the woods behind the dorms. My body moves on instinct, not memory. 
    I barely feel the sting of branches clawing at my arms or the thorns scratching at my ankles. I just keep going until the trees swallow me whole and the world finally goes quiet.
And then I collapse.
Not gracefully. Not with dignity.
   I fall like the world cracked beneath me and I’m just now realizing there’s no one left to catch me.
  The leaves are damp under my palms. I curl my fingers into the dirt like it’ll hold me in place, ground me somehow, but the tremble in my chest refuses to stop. My heartbeat is a war drum. My breath is a scream trapped between my ribs.
"I saw him," I whisper. "I saw him."
  Arc’s father.
   That cold face. That cruel, deliberate way he raised his weapon. The blood. My mother’s blood. Her voice echoing in my ears, fierce and full of fight even as she fell.
   Tears slip down my cheeks before I realize they’re even there.
   I press my forehead against the damp earth. "Why now?" My voice is barely audible, raspy from running and raw from screaming. "Why did it have to come back now?"
   I thought I was healing. I thought I was getting stronger. But today? Today gutted me.
   And what makes it worse - what makes it unbearable is that he’s the one who brought me to that moment. Arc. My mate. The boy whose hands shake when I cry and who pretends he doesn’t care when I know damn well he does.
How do I reconcile that?
   How do I let myself want him when his father was the blade that ended my family? That tore me away from the parents I didn't even get the chance to know.
   The scream that rips from my throat is pure, feral grief. It echoes through the trees like something wild, something no longer human.
   I don’t even recognize the sound of myself anymore.
I trusted him.
   I roll onto my back, staring up through the canopy of twisted branches and cloudy sky. The light is dimming, and with it, so is every shred of certainty I had left.
   He didn’t know. I know he didn’t. He looked at me like he’d been stabbed when I said the words. But it doesn’t matter, does it?
Blood ties everything.
And now, I don’t know where that leaves us.
   I press a hand over my chest, as if I can cage the pain in.
The bond pulls at me like an open wound.
I want to rip it out.
I want to run back to him.
I want to forget everything and I want to remember it all - all at once.
Tears keep falling.
   I stay there on the forest floor, hidden from the world, and let myself fall apart.
   Because for once, I don’t have the strength to keep pretending I’m okay.
*****
I don’t know how I end up in the park.
    Maybe my feet just needed somewhere soft to land, somewhere open, where the trees don’t remind me of blood on snow and the sky doesn’t feel like it’s about to crush me.
   But here I am. Running until my lungs are raw, until my knees threaten to give out, until I trip onto damp grass and let the wind kiss my tears.
Everything hurts.
Every memory, every heartbeat, every breath.
   And then, I hear it. Footsteps pounding the pavement behind me. His scent drifts with the air towards me signalling his arrival.
No.
Not now.
Not him.
   I turn just in time to see Arc break through the hedge of trees, eyes wild, chest heaving. He’s followed by another shadow a few steps behind Jon. I barely register him. My vision is tunneled. Blood-red. Rage-soaked.
   "Aurora!" Arc calls out.
His voice should mean something. But it doesn’t. Not anymore.
   The first raindrop hits my cheek like a cold slap. Then another. Then a thousand more.
  "Stay away from me!" I scream over the low rumble of the sky.
   Arc slows, cautious now, as if I might shatter beneath his touch. And maybe I will.
   "Aurora, I just need to talk to you. Can we talk? Please-"
   "You don’t get to say please!" My voice cracks, loud, desperate, like it’s trying to claw its way out of me. "You don’t get to talk to me. You don’t get to look at me. You don’t get to be here!"
   His lips part, but I’m already charging forward. Not to hug him. Not to collapse into his chest like I used to want to.
I hit him.
Fists against his chest.
Once.Twice. Again.
   "I saw it!" I scream. "I saw it in the vision! Your father! Your father killed them!"
   Arc doesn’t move. Doesn’t flinch. He just stands there, taking every blow like he deserves it. Maybe he thinks he does. I hope he does.
His silence only fuels my fury.
    "He murdered my mother!" My voice is hoarse, shrill, but I don’t care. "He murdered my father! He didn’t even hesitate. He looked her in the eyes and pushed a sword into her like she was nothing. I can... I can still hear their screams." My hand subconsciously goes to cover my ears, tugging at them, willing the screams to stop.
   My fists fall again, weaker now. Rain is soaking my hair, clinging to my clothes, but I barely feel it. It all mixes together, the grief and water and rage until I’m shaking in his arms, hating how warm he still is, how solid.
   "Did you know?" I ask, quieter now, venom dripping with every syllable. "Did you know, Arc? Tell me. Tell me you knew."
If he knew, it would be easier to hate him.
His mouth opens. Closes. Nothing comes out.
    "Of course you didn’t," I spit before he can answer, tears pouring harder now. "You’re too good at pretending to care. You’re just like him. You carry his blood. And I—" My voice breaks, splinters like glass. "I was stupid. I thought you could be different."
I shove him. Hard.
"I hate you."
   His head drops. Shoulders slump.
"I hate you!" My scream echoes, louder than the thunder now. "And I swear, I swear I’ll kill him. I don’t care what it takes! I’ll make him bleed for what he did. Even if it’s the last thing I ever do."
Arc doesn’t speak. Doesn’t stop me.
But something in his eyes - something hollow and breaking that cuts deeper than any scream ever could.
   His lips tremble. And for a split second, I think I see it, tears, blurring the ocean blue of his irises.
But the rain hides everything.
Jon stands behind us, still as a statue. I see him in my peripheral, but I don’t let myself care. Not right now.
   Not when every part of me feels like it’s caving in.
I step back.
I don’t look at either of them again.
And then I walk away - my spine straight, my fists clenched, my heart in pieces.
   I don’t run this time. I don’t scream. I just walk, each step heavier than the last, until the park fades behind me and all that’s left is the echo of what used to be love.