Help! My Moms Are Overpowered Tyrants, and I'm Stuck as Their Baby!-Chapter 185: What’s gotten into you

"Go on," I said softly, voice like frost. "We're listening."

My words felt unfamiliar in my own mouth cold, deliberate, edged with something sharp that left a taste of iron on my tongue. Around us, the cafeteria's usual noise receded as if the room itself was holding its breath. I could feel a dozen pairs of eyes on us, but all my attention was fixed on the small, rapidly unraveling drama at our table: Velka's hand on Aria's wrist, Aria's knuckles white, and everyone else caught somewhere between concern and dawning, electric suspicion.

What was happening? Why did Velka's glare promise blood? Why was Aria , who never lost her composure, who could command a roomful of demon nobility with a single glance suddenly shrinking, her mask of calm fracturing under pressure?

I realized, belatedly, that my own hand was clenched around my fork so tightly that my knuckles ached. I set it down quietly, pretending I was in control of the room, of the situation, of my own confusion.

Aria tried to tug her arm free. "This is ridiculous," she said, voice wavering but pitched for an audience. "Velka, let go what's gotten into you?"

Velka's smile was knife-thin. "Would you like to ask me what was in the stew they fed me in that cell, Aria? Or maybe we should talk about how you made a clone to take my place?"

Riven, who had never met an awkward silence she couldn't break, finally swallowed her mouthful of cheese and muttered, "I thought the weirdness was just her haircut, but apparently not."

"Clone?" I echoed, blinking. "Velka, what are you talking about?"

Velka didn't look at me. She kept her gaze locked on Aria, the shadows at her fingertips flickering like restless snakes. "She knows exactly what I'm talking about."

Aria's lips parted in an expression I'd never seen on her before fear, tangled up with something that looked very much like guilt. But in the next moment, she forced herself into composure, chin lifting, brows arching in gentle confusion.

"Velka, please," Aria said, pitching her voice into that careful, comforting register she always used when someone was crying in the dorms or when Riven nearly set the stables on fire (again). "You've been through a terrible ordeal. Maybe you're confused magical trauma can create false memories, especially after "

"Oh, that's clever," Velka interrupted, voice full of honeyed venom. "Gaslight me in front of everyone, is that the plan?"

I hesitated. The accusation was wild wasn't it? But then again, Velka had vanished. Mara and Elira had vanished. When they reappeared, they were bruised, battered, and dragging a golden mask that seemed to hum with hostile magic. The whole school had felt strange all day, like the halls themselves were bracing for impact. And now Aria always poised, always inscrutable was shaking.

My chest tightened. I wanted to speak, to demand answers, but the words tangled in my throat. Instead, I watched the scene unfold with the prickling sense that I was missing something vital, some undercurrent running just beneath the surface.

Aria straightened, shaking off Velka's grip with a force that was more magical than physical just a flicker, a twist of power that left frost on Velka's skin.

"I'm sorry, Elyzara," she said, and the way she said my name made me flinch. "I don't know what's gotten into her. I found Velka wandering the east wing in a state of confusion, and she's been acting erratic ever since. You know she's always been volatile "

Velka laughed, low and wild. "You see, princess? This is what she does. She twists things. You want to know how I got these bruises? Ask Aria who locked me up in the forbidden wing and why there's a fake Velka running around."

Mara and Elira shifted beside me. Mara's jaw flexed with unspoken anger, but it was Elira's voice soft, lethal that broke the tension.

"We found you chained to the wall, Velka," she said. "Not confused. Imprisoned. And we had to break through half a dozen wards keyed to your magic signature. If Aria didn't do it, then who did?" freёnovelkiss.com

For a moment, Aria looked at Elira with something like respect then she shrugged, as if the whole thing bored her. "Wards can be forged. There are a dozen magi here who'd love to see Velka humiliated. And as for clones illusion magic is everywhere at Arcanum, especially near midterms. If someone replaced Velka, perhaps you should be investigating them, not me."

She tried to pull her sleeve down, hiding the faint mark where Velka's shadow had gripped her. Her eyes darted to me, searching for support, for a lifeline.

"Elyzara, you know me," Aria said, and there was something almost pleading in her voice. "You know I wouldn't couldn't betray you. Or Velka. We're friends."

I hesitated. The word felt strange, ill-fitting. Friends didn't disappear for days or orchestrate magical betrayals. Friends didn't lie with such ease. But I didn't want to believe it didn't want to think that someone I'd trusted, someone who'd bandaged my wounds and covered for me during forbidden midnight raids, could be capable of this.

"Aria," I said quietly, "if you're innocent, why are you so scared?"

Aria went very still. For a second, I saw something flicker in her eyes a deep, bottomless exhaustion. She looked suddenly older, the shadows beneath her eyes stark in the cafeteria's harsh light.

"Because," she said, and her voice was barely more than a whisper, "I know what happens to traitors at Arcanum."

Velka's expression darkened. "Oh, don't flatter yourself. If I wanted to punish you, you wouldn't have the chance to feel afraid."

Aria stepped back, shaking her head. "This is madness. All of you , you're so eager for a villain, you'll make one out of me if you have to."

She turned, ready to flee, but Mara blocked her path. Mara, bruised and limping but unyielding, fixed Aria with a look that promised no mercy.

"Tell us the truth," Mara said, voice dangerously low. "Now."

For a heartbeat, Aria teetered on the edge mask slipping, heart racing, searching for a path out. Then, with a breath, she straightened, and for the first time since I'd known her, I saw her true self: sharp, cold, brilliant, and entirely unapologetic.

She smiled. It wasn't the smile of a friend it was the smile of someone who had lost something irreplaceable and chosen to set the world on fire for it.

"You want the truth?" she said, voice ringing through the silent cafeteria. "Fine. Velka was in my way. You all were. The world is full of fools who think power belongs to those who inherit it. I know better. I am better. And you—" She looked at me, and for an instant I saw a glimmer of regret, gone as quickly as it came. "You never understood how fragile your kingdom is, Elyzara. You never understood how alone you truly are."

Before anyone could move, she flicked her hand. Shadows exploded outward, the force hurling Mara and Velka backward. Riven ducked under the table, cheese flying everywhere. Elira lunged, sword drawn, but Aria was already moving, darting through the chaos, her form blurring with illusion and speed.

For a second, I saw her eyes meet mine, all her masks gone just a flicker of the girl I'd trusted. And then she was gone, melting into the shadows, leaving nothing but silence and a faint, acrid smell of burnt magic behind.

I stood frozen, heart pounding, mind racing, as the cafeteria erupted into shocked whispers. Velka picked herself up, brushing dust from her cloak, eyes blazing with fury.

Mara groaned, cradling her arm. "We really need better friends."

Elira knelt beside me, her presence solid and reassuring. "You okay?"

"I don't know," I admitted, my voice trembling. "She was my friend."

Velka snorted. "That's Aria for you. She makes a spectacular exit, at least."

Riven emerged from under the table, cheese in hand, and surveyed the destruction. "Does this mean no dessert?"

I almost laughed. Almost. But the ache in my chest wouldn't let go. Everything felt wrong fractured, uncertain, as if the ground beneath my feet had turned to glass.

[Trust is for the foolish,] the system whispered, almost gently. [But you're not alone, not really.]

The words echoed in the hollow places of my mind, sinking deep. I stared at the ruined cafeteria, at the fractured remains of what I'd thought was safety. For all my bravado, for all the power swirling in my veins and the loyal friends at my side, I felt the ground slipping each certainty cracking beneath the weight of betrayal.

Had I been foolish? Too willing to see the best in people, too ready to believe that friendship was a shield against the darkness slithering through these ancient halls? Aria's face her smile, her cold confession burned behind my eyes. I wondered, suddenly, how many other smiles I'd misread. How many times I'd mistaken a mask for a friend.

I clenched my fists, jaw tight. I couldn't afford to trust so easily. Not anymore. Not when power attracted shadows and even old companions could twist into enemies. The system was right I wasn't truly alone. But maybe, from now on, I'd have to keep a part of myself hidden, just in case.

Because in this world, trust was a luxury. And I was done being naive.