Chapter 108 The Ride.

Chapter 108 The Ride.
The leather seat is so cold, it feels like ice seeping straight into my bones but I just stare out the tinted window watching the trees blur together into a dark smear.

Margaret is sitting right next to me and she hasn't said a single word since the heavy iron gates of Stonehaven closed behind us, she just taps on her tablet with this perfectly calm expression like she didn't just rip my entire world apart.

My stomach clenches with anxiety until I feel sick.

I can feel the distance between me and Abel growing with every mile we drive and it feels like a physical thing, like a heavy iron hook snagged right into the center of my chest and it's pulling tighter and tighter until I can barely breathe.

What am I doing? Why am I here in this car?

I press my forehead against the cool glass and close my eyes. I have to remember why I did this, I need to remember the starving wolves and the frozen accounts and Abel looking so desperate to fight the whole world for me.

I couldn't let them die for me.

But god, it hurts so much, the tether in my mind is vibrating with Abel's panic and his fury that I have to build that wall in my head. The lake Freya talked about, I have to push all my fear down to the bottom of the lake so Abel doesn't feel it and does something reckless.

"Stop fidgeting," Margaret says without even looking up from her screen.

My hands are shaking in my lap and I didn't even realize I was twisting my fingers together so hard my knuckles are white.

"I'm not fidgeting," I whisper, my voice sounding totally hollow.

"You need to prepare yourself Evelyn," she says and her voice is like dry leaves scraping on concrete. 

"Kane is very agitated and he doesn't like being embarrassed, you made a massive spectacle of yourself with that little display on the porch and he has had to spend millions in PR spin to make you look like a tragic hostage instead of a treasonous wife."

Something about the way she says it makes my chest burn with a tiny spark of anger but I push it down, I push it deep under the water because anger is dangerous right now.

"I don't know what you want me to say," I tell her.

"I want you to be quiet and compliant," she snaps and finally looks at me with those cold mismatched eyes. 

"When we get inside you will do exactly as the doctors tell you, you are a sick, unstable girl who suffered a psychic break and we are here to cure you. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"If you fight them," she leans closer and her perfume smells like rotting lilies and chemical cleaner, 

"If you try to use that chaotic little spark you call magic, I will personally ensure your mother is moved to a wing of Blackwood where the lights never turn on."

I stop breathing for a second.

"I understand," I say completely flat because if I show her how much that terrifies me she'll just use it more.

The car slows down and turns off the main highway onto a private paved road that winds through thick dark woods.

Serenity Hills.

It sounds like a spa, but when the trees clear and I see the building my heart pounds so hard it hurts my ribs. 

It's a massive concrete complex surrounded by high electrified fences and guard towers, it looks exactly like a prison dressed up with some nice landscaping and a fountain by the front doors.

We pull up to the entrance and two men in dark scrubs come out immediately with a wheelchair.

"I can walk," I say , automatically shrinking back against the seat.

"You will ride," Margaret says, stepping out of the car. "You are heavily traumatized and weak, act like it."

I swallow the bile in my throat and slide out of the car and sit in the wheelchair, the plastic seat is cold as they quickly strap a belt across my lap like I'm a flight risk.

Maybe I am.

They wheel me through the automatic sliding doors and the smell hits me instantly, bleach and rubbing alcohol and that sterile empty smell of places where people go to disappear.

The lobby is totally white and terrifyingly quiet, no other patients are around, just security guards standing by the elevators looking straight ahead.

"Take her to Sub-Level B," Margaret tells the men and she doesn't even look at me as she walks away toward the reception desk.

They push me toward a heavy metal elevator and swipe a keycard and we go down.

My palm sweats and I grip the armrests of the chair trying not to hyperventilate. Sub-Level B sounds like a basement, it sounds like the dark part of this place.

The doors slide open and it's just a long hallway lined with solid metal doors without any windows, just numbers painted on the steel.

They wheel me into Room 4 and unstrap me.

"Change into this," the man says, dropping a folded grey hospital gown on the narrow cot in the corner. 

"The doctor will be in shortly."

He leaves and the door locks behind him with a heavy mechanical clank that echoes in my chest.

I'm completely entirely trapped.

I strip off my nice clothes with shaking hands and pull the rough scratchy gown over my head, it smells like industrial laundry detergent. It's too big and makes me feel so small and vulnerable.

I sit on the edge of the cot and wrap my arms around my knees already feeling Abel pulling at the tether in my mind, a frantic searching feeling like he's reaching for me in the dark.

I'm okay

I think, trying to push a feeling of calm back through the bond. 

I'm safe

The door clicks and swings open.

I look up and my heart stops completely at the sight before me.

Kane walks into the room.

He looks perfect, his suit is flawless and his dark hair is perfectly styled. He looks so normal and put together that it makes me want to throw up everywhere.

"Hello Evelyn," he says and he closes the door behind him.

"Hi," I whisper and I press my back against the cold cinderblock wall.

He walks toward me slowly and something about the way he moves is so predatory, like a snake sliding through the grass.

"You've been a very bad girl," he says, stopping right in front of me. He reaches out and grabs my chin, his fingers digging into my jaw exactly where the old bruises used to be.

I don't fight him, I let my eyes go wide and frightened because that's what he wants, he wants me broken and scared.

"I'm sorry," I choke out and the tears are real because I really am terrified.

"Shh," he strokes his thumb over my cheek and his touch makes my skin crawl so badly I feel nauseous.

"It's alright darling, I know it wasn't really your fault, Stone manipulated you, he used his Alpha aura to twist your mind and confuse you."

What is he talking about?

"He brainwashed you Evelyn," Kane continues and his eyes are shining with this sick twisted fake sympathy.

"But don't worry, we're going to fix it. We're going to clean all that dirty wolf magic out of your head and make you perfect again."

My stomach clenches and a wave of absolute horror washes over me.

Clean my head.

What is he going to do to me?

"No," I gasp trying to pull my face away from his grip but he holds tight. "Kane please i don't need—"

"You don't know what you need," he says softly. "Your mind is sick right now, you're confused and hurting and I love you too much to let you suffer with these false memories he implanted."

He really believes his own lies, he actually thinks he's the victim here and it's terrifying.

"I remember everything fine," I say and my voice is shaking uncontrollably.

"Dr. Aris is going to help us," Kane says, ignoring me completely. He looks toward the door as a tall man in a white coat enters rolling a metal cart covered in monitors and IV bags and strange glowing crystals.

"Strap her down," Kane orders.

"No!" I scream and I try to scramble off the cot but Kane grabs me around the waist and slams me backward onto the thin mattress.

I thrash and kick but he's a werewolf and he's so much stronger than me, despite my newly discovered powers which seemed to have suddenly disappeared now. Not even a flicker of light when I need it.

He holds me down with one arm across my chest pressing the breath out of my lungs while the doctor grabs my wrists.

"Hold still Mrs Hellboud," the doctor says, fastening a thick leather strap over my right arm and pulling it tight.

"I can't, I can't let go of me!" I sob and I reach for my magic, I try to summon the violet fire to blast them away but my panic is too loud and I can't focus enough to feel anything.

Kane grabs my other arm and straps it down and then my legs are bound until I'm spread-eagled on the cold bed completely helpless.

"This is going to sting," Dr. Aris says, picking up a syringe filled with a cloudy silver liquid.

"What is that?" I cry, thrashing my head side to side. "Kane please don't do this!"

"It's a cleansing agent," Kane leans down and kisses my forehead with his cold lips. "It will burn away the last few weeks Evelyn, it will burn away Stone and the rebellion and the trauma and when you wake up you'll just be my sweet obedient wife again."

"No!"

I feel the needle pierce the vein in my arm and the cold liquid rushes into my bloodstream like liquid nitrogen.

It hits my chest and immediately attacks the tether.

I scream as fire explodes behind my eyes and the world turns blinding white. The magic is trying to scrub my brain, trying to rip Abel out of my head like a weed.

It hurts so much I feel like my skull is cracking open.

But then something happens.

Deep in the center of my chest where the silver scar marks my soul, the bond flares. It doesn't break, it anchors me. Abel's energy rushes back through the tether holding my memories down like heavy stones at the bottom of a river.

The silver liquid washes over them but it can't move them, it can't erase a bond that's tied to my soul.

I realize in a split second what I have to do.

I let my eyes roll back in my head and I let my body go completely limp against the leather straps.

I stop screaming and my breathing goes shallow and slow.

"There we go," Kane's voice echoes from somewhere far away. "Let it work, doctor, wipe her completely."

I lie there in the dark, hiding my mind behind the wall, pretending the girl who loved Abel Stone is gone.

And I wait.