All Chapters of The Blood Opera: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

I could still taste it— the faint, warm trace of Silas’s blood on the back of my tongue. My stomach twisted. My throat pulsed. My body felt like it belonged to someone else.“Oh God,” I whispered.I crossed to the washbasin, splashed cold water on my lips, my face, my wrists—hard enough to sting. But the memory didn’t wash away.Silas’ sharp inhale. The warmth of his skin beneath my mouth, the soft gasp he’d made when I licked him, the way my hunger had answered with heat and pleasure.I gripped the edge of the basin until my knuckles whitened.“I’m losing myself,” I whispered.The girl I had been—poor, desperate, hungry for a future—felt miles away. Something else lived inside me now. Something that wanted. Something that knew what blood tasted like. And wanted more.My knees buckled. I slid to the floor beside the basin, pressing my forehead against the cool wood of the cabinet.“I’m a monster.”“No.”The word drifted like smoke from the shadows.My heart seized.I didn’t look up fo

Avel held me upright, but barely. My limbs shook uncontrollably. My breath came in sharp, stuttering gasps. My vision blurred at the edges, pulsing with the rhythm of my heartbeat. “Avel,” I choked, gripping his coat, “something’s wrong—I can’t—I can’t stop it—” “I know,” he whispered, voice raw, “just breathe, Lyria—hold onto me—” But breathing did nothing. The hunger rose too fast. Too strong. Like it had been waiting for this moment. My fingers curled into Avel’s chest, not from choice but instinct—searching, reaching, needing. His eyes widened. “No,” he whispered, cupping my face gently but firmly. “Lyria, listen to me—this is not your fault—look at me—just me—" But Caelan’s last words still echoed in the stone: He will devour you too. The tunnel spun. Avel’s touch steadied me but also fed the hunger. His scent. His warmth. His pulse. A pressure bloomed along my gums, subtle at first, like a change in weather felt through bone. Heat gathered behind my teeth,

I ran.Not because Avel frightened me, but because I frightened me.The hunger was curling through my veins like wildfire. I pressed a hand to my chest, stumbling down the dim corridor, gasping for breath that no longer soothed anything.I couldn’t feed on Avel.I couldn’t.I would destroy him.Somewhere behind me, I heard him call my name.“LYRIA—!”I turned the corner and crashed straight into a wall of heat and shadows.Caelan.He caught me by the arms before I could fall, his grip iron and silk all at once.“Well,” he murmured, tilting his head, “look what the night dragged to me.”His hands didn’t tighten. They didn’t need to.My hunger reacted first—violently, involuntarily—flaring hot under my skin like it recognised him. I shoved against his chest, panic bursting through me.“Let me go!”Caelan laughed softly.“You are leaking hunger like perfume.” He inhaled deeply, eyes sliding half-lidded. “Exquisite.”I recoiled—but the corridor behind me blurred with dizziness. Caelan cau

Darkness rippled around me, warm and heavy, like velvet dropped over my senses.Avel’s blood—rich, ancient, a burning star in my veins—tangled through every part of me.When I opened my eyes, the world looked different. Everything breathed. And I felt him everywhere—Avel—in my pulse, in my throat, in my bones.I blinked slowly.I was sitting on the floor. Avel was in my arms. He’d collapsed onto his knees during the bite from the intensity. His face now rested against my collarbone, breath shaky, arms wrapped around my waist in a hold that had not loosened even after consciousness slipped away.Silas crouched a few feet away, trembling, eyes wide, white-knuckled, whispering prayers.The door behind him was cracked in the frame, splintered inward from something striking it from the outside.A low, furious growl vibrated from the other side. Caelan wasn’t trying to break in anymore.He was waiting.Avel stirred. He tightened his hold on me instinctively, a soft sound escaping him. I bru

Avel carried me from the stage as if the entire opera house were made of knives.His breath trembled. His pulse hammered against my cheek. He held me like I was a burning coal and he was refusing to let go even as it seared him.Silas ran behind us.“Is she—? Avel, she’s not breathing right!”“She’s overwhelmed,” Avel snapped. “Too many heartbeats. Too many scents.”He didn’t stop until he reached the far wing. Avel kicked the door open and laid me gently on the couch inside.Silas shut the door behind us. Avel turned the key. The lock clicked.Something cold tightened in my chest.“Avel?” My voice shook—unfamiliar, sharp.He knelt in front of me, taking my face in both hands.“Sweetheart,” he whispered, “I need you to stay here.”My stomach dropped.“Stay? Alone?”“For now,” he said, brushing his thumbs over my cheekbones. “Just until I calm the others. They’re terrified.”Silas swallowed. “Terrified of her.”Avel shot him a glare that could have frozen steel.But I heard it.Like a