CHAPTER 39: Jailbreak

**ARIA**

I can't feel her anymore. Not my wolf. It's like she doesn't exist, like she was ripped away from me, and no matter how deep I try to search her inside me, to get her to come close to the surface, nothing happens.

Nothing at all.

And I hate that.

I hate this pain. I hate the fact I'm chained, that I'm stuck here. That I'm suffering the same way my father had subjected me to years ago, and it seems there is no way out.

And worst of all, my wolf isn't there. She has been suppressed since the moment the high-dose mistlock entered my system. A small dose couldn't have worked on her since my immunity has become strong enough to fight it off, but right now she isn't in sight. She can't help.

And it feels horrible. 

Painful. 

My throat is dry when my eyes open up again. I turn onto my stomach and groan onto the floor. The hard surface only bruises me further. My eyes blink, and I take in a shuddered breath.

There is blood all over my arms. In my arms.

*They* left a silver blade in my arm, and I couldn't remove it myself.

No matter how much I tried, I couldn't. I couldn't even budge it out.

It keeps burning. 

And it has been hours. 

I groan onto the floor once more before I hear voices outside the room and the sound of metal clinking. They are back.

Shit. 

My eyes shut immediately. I don't want them to know that I'm awake, or they'll subject me to more things that they don't understand themselves.

It's not something I can control—the healing, the ability to withstand silver, the strength or the speed of my wolf in which she recovers. It's all her.

But these people seem not to know or care to understand. Not one bit. 

The footsteps get closer, and a shudder suddenly runs down my spine. The fear of being in this place and what they might do with me makes my skin crawl.

But it's not them who step through that door.

I flinch, half-blind as the light explodes into the room. My breath catches in my throat as I see him. 

Lucian. 

His gaze lands on me, on the blood pooling beneath my body, the silver blade still buried in my arm, and everything about him shifts.

"Aria," he says, his eyes darkening. Something in me leaps to the surface in the sound of my name.

He is next to me on the floor in seconds. His hands cup around my shoulders. 

"Aria, look at me. Are you alright?"

"Lucian," my words are quiet as my vision goes hazy, my mind swaying from side to side.

"I've got you." his hand slides beneath me as he starts to lift my body, and I wince at the motion. Pain, sharp, burning pain shoots through me. "Sorry."

"It hurts." It comes out more as a whine. 

"I know," he breathes before wrapping his hand around the edge of the silver blade, "Hold onto me. I need to pull this out."

I blink and my eyes shut close as my fingers curl into his shirt, and the pain intensifies once more. It's only for a few seconds, and it ends quickly after I let out a muffled scream of agony against him. He holds my head, his hand soothing the skin against the base of my skull as the tears slide down the corner of my eyes.

He picks me off the floor, pulling me tight against him before rising with me safely tucked against his chest.

"You're fine now. It's over."

The silver clanks onto the ground, and I feel his hands wrapping around me. 

My vision fades and returns back in glimpses. 

"Did you—" I barely manage the words out. 

"Know?" he finishes for me and then releases a deep sigh. "Not about ten minutes ago." 

My breath hitches, and I close my eyes again as another wave of pain tears through me. He carries me somewhere up, on ground level, from what I can tell. I can't recognise the place at all.

"Should I call Irina?" I recognise Darius' voice quickly enough. 

"No," Lucian is quick to respond to him. "She must've told Rowan about her healing ability to begin with. Don't inform anyone."

"Alright. Shall I head with you?" 

There's a moment of silence before Lucian speaks here. "Stay here. Make sure there's no one else objecting. And find out how Rowan got to know about this. Start with the healer."

I feel the wind hitting against my skin. Lucian carries me out and somewhere away from the place I was in. 

A door to a car opens, and he slides me inside before closing the door. 

I crane my neck to my arm, the pain slowly subsiding, but the healing, hasn't started. I touch the spot where the cut is, and it doesn't really burn anymore. 

*My wolf...* 

*Where is she?* 

A moment later, the other side of the car door opens and Lucian comes inside. He gives me a brief glance before turning on the engine. 

"I can't feel her..." I whimper through a hoarse voice. 

"Mistlock does that," he starts to explain, but then his voice stops short when he sees me shake my head. "It'll take some time. Don't worry, she'll be fine." 

The panic inside me keeps growing. I've never felt this way. Never.

And it's been so many years since she disappeared.

My voice breaks even more, "What if she doesn't?"

Lucian turns to me and traces his thumb on my cheekbone, "I promise you, she's safe." His eyes travel to the gash across my arm, the only one wound that hasn't healed yet.

The last time she hid was because she was afraid of my father. That was one time I didn't heal. She didn't surface until weeks later. 

My chest tightens.

"No," my voice breaks. It's all I manage before the world starts spinning, and then, it goes black.

Nothing else.