CHAPTER 38
ARIA
“What’s wrong with my hair?” Lean asked, frowning as he caught his reflection in a shop window beside the station exit.
I turned to look at him, biting back a smile.
“It’s not wrong, exactly,” I said, choosing my words carefully.
“But it’s long. It definitely needs a trim—unless you want to keep getting stared at ..."
He ran a hand through it defensively, like I’d just insulted a beloved part of him.
“I like it this way.”
“I know,” I said gently, brushing a loose strand off his forehead.
“But if you want to blend in around here, you can’t walk around looking like like an escaped convict."
I nudged his arm playfully.
"And you’re going to need more than just that coat. We’ll find you new clothes first. Then a haircut.”
He looked down at himself as if only just realising that he stuck out like a thunderstorm in spring.
His worn boots, the tattered hem of his pants, the way he walked—too upright, too watchful—it all screamed not from here.
I nudged his arm playfully.
“Trust me. A good pair of jeans and a hoodie will work wonders.”
He sighed dramatically, shoulders slumping.
“So many rules for just existing.”
“Welcome to being human,” I said, nudging him with a half-smile.
“Come on. Let’s get you looking less… otherworldly.”
I tugged on his sleeve, guiding him toward the main street lined with shops and hair salons.
It should’ve been a simple errand—blend in, disappear, survive.
That was the plan. I was already running through stores in my mind, picturing jackets, neutral-toned jeans, boots—something that would make him look like he belonged.
Until we reached the exit.
I stopped dead in my tracks.
Sophia.
She was standing at the bottom of the station stairs, flanked by six of the lab’s security personnel.
Black coats.
Ear-pieces.
Guns.
Their eyes scanned the crowd with frightening precision, cold and calculated.
No.
My blood went cold.
My fingers tightened around Lean’s sleeve, instinctively pulling him closer. My chest rose and fell with sharp, shallow breaths as my heart thudded violently against my ribs.
They were waiting.
Waiting for us.
How?
How could they possibly have known where we were?
This wasn’t a coincidence.
It wasn’t bad luck.
They had come with purpose, with precision.
Which meant they knew.
Which meant someone—somehow—had tracked us.
“Aria?” Lean’s voice was low, alert. His senses picked up on my panic immediately.
“They found us,” I whispered, my voice tight, barely audible.
Lean stiffened beside me. I could feel the shift in his body—the quiet tension, the dangerous calm.
His posture straightened, his jaw clenched, and his eyes sharpened like a predator sizing up a threat.
His coat rustled slightly, and I knew he was suppressing the urge to unfurl his wings, to shield me, to fight.
“Aria,” Lean said, low and cold, eyes trained on the guards.
“Do I fight?”
“No,” I whispered, panicking.
“Not here. Not now.”
People passed around us like we were just another couple trying to find our way through the crowd.
No one noticed the way I was shaking, or the way Lean’s hands were curling slowly into fists.
We couldn’t draw attention. Couldn’t risk a scene.
But inside, I was spiralling.
My mind raced, trying to find a hole in our plan, a moment we’d slipped up. But I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.
We needed to disappear—
I was still struggling to make sense of it all when Dalton stepped out of the shadows like he’d been waiting for his moment, hands in the pockets of his sleek coat, face calm and unreadable.
"I see you noticed the welcoming committee," he said dryly, nodding toward the guards near the station exit.
"They're not exactly subtle."
Of all the people I never wanted to see again, he might have topped the list.
A former lead scientist in the lab—a man with just enough charm to be dangerous and just enough secrets to never be trusted.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped, instinctively pulling Lean behind me.
“Here to drag us back?”
His brows lifted, unfazed. “Relax. I’m not your enemy.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” I shot back, my pulse hammering in my ears.
“How did they find us? We were careful. We didn’t leave a trail.”
Dalton tilted his head toward Lean, his expression unreadable.
“You were careful,” he said.
“But they planned for this. They didn’t need a trail—they had a beacon.”
Lean stiffened beside me.
“There’s a chip,” Dalton continued, voice steady. “Implanted at the base of his neck.
Low-frequency transmitter. I helped design it.”
My heart sank. “What....no...”
Dalton’s expression didn’t change. “Check for yourself.”
I hesitated, then reached up with trembling fingers and pushed back the collar of Lean’s coat. My hand brushed over his warm skin, and then—
There.
A hard little bump just below his hairline.
Oh god.
He wasn’t lying.
My stomach twisted.
How had I not noticed this before?
How had I missed something so obvious?
“It’s there,” I whispered, my throat dry.
Lean turned his head slightly, eyes narrowing at Dalton.
“You put this in me?”
Dalton raised both hands.
“Not personally. But yes. During your first sedation, the implant was part of the tracking protocol. You were dangerous—we had to keep tabs on you.”
Lean snarled low in his throat, his body snapping into a tense, predatory posture. I saw the shimmer of silver begin to form at his fingertips. His claws.
He stepped forward.
I moved faster, slipping between them and placing a hand firmly on his chest.
“Lean. Stop,” I said firmly, locking eyes with him.
“Don’t. Not now.”
His gaze burned into mine—wild, angry, betrayed—but after a tense pause, he exhaled sharply and stepped back.
Dalton blinked, clearly stunned.
“He… he listens to you?”
“He’s not some wild thing,” I snapped.
“He’s an individual. You just never treated him like one.”
Still, I couldn’t ignore the way Dalton’s eyes lingered on Lean with a strange, cautious fascination.
“He didn’t obey orders like that before,” he said slowly.
“Back in the lab, he was unpredictable. Violent. But with you…”
I didn’t answer.
I wasn’t about to explain the bond Lean and I were forming—not to someone like him.
Dalton reached into his coat and pulled out something small and metallic. A surgical scalpel.
“You’ll need this,” he said, holding it out.
I didn’t take it right away.
“And this,” he added, pulling a slim plastic card from his pocket—my ID. The one I thought I’d lost during the chaos back at the lab.
“Figured you’d want this back.”
I stared at him. “Why are you helping us? What’s in it for you?”
He sighed. “I’ve spent years justifying the things we did in that place, Aria. Telling myself we were saving the world, creating something better. But what they’re doing now… It’s not science anymore. It’s control. And cruelty.”
“That never stopped you before,” I said coldly.
“I know,” he murmured.
“But it stops me now.”
I studied his face, searching for cracks in the mask. Lies.
Manipulation.
I couldn’t see some angles yet. I found… regret.
Real or not, it was there in his eyes.
Still, I didn’t trust him.
Not fully.
“I’m not saying I forgive you,” I said quietly, snatching the scalpel from his hand.
“But I’ll take the help. Just this once.”
Dalton nodded, like he expected as much.
“Your old apartment’s been compromised. They’re watching it. You can’t go back there.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. I should’ve known.
“There’s a service tunnel two blocks from here,” he continued.
“Maintenance access. No cameras. Leads to the lower levels of the city. You can lose them in the underground.”
“And then what?” I asked bitterly. “Live like ghosts?”
“For now? Yes,” Dalton said.
“Until you can get that chip out of him. Until you can disappear completely.”
My eyes flicked to Lean, whose expression had darkened. He was listening, but saying nothing.
I looked back at Dalton. “If you’re lying—”
“I’m not,” he said simply. “You’d already be in shackles if I were.”
I hated that he was right.
“I’ll take care of the chip,” I muttered, pocketing the scalpel.
“But after this… we’re on our own.”
He nodded once.
I turned to Lean, my fingers still tight around the scalpel, like it anchored me to something solid in the middle of this storm.
“We’ll find a place to lay low,” I said quietly, forcing calm into my voice even though my heart was still thundering.
“I’ll get the chip out tonight. Then we disappear. Just the two of us.”
He didn’t answer right away. His eyes locked on mine—stormy, unreadable, but softening at the edges.
“You trust him?” he asked, voice low and uncertain. Almost… vulnerable.
I shook my head, my fingers brushing against his. “No,” I whispered. “But I trust us.”
And for now, that had to be enough.