AriaI woke up a few hours later to the sound of someone breathing like the world was slipping out of their hands. For a second, I didn’t know where I was. The room felt too bright and cold. My chest felt tight, wrapped in something stiff. My throat tasted like metal and everything inside me was heavy, like I’d just been dragged out of the bottom of a lake.Then I turned my head, and the world snapped into focus. Zion was sitting beside my bed… sobbing quietly.My heart lurched so violently I almost ripped a stitch.“Z… Zion?” My voice came out thin and rough, like it had been sanded down.His head shot up instantly and his eyes were red, swollen, and panicked. “Aria, Aria, you’re awake. Oh my God.” His chair screeched against the floor as he leaned over me, cupping my face gently, afraid he’d break me with the slightest pressure. “I thought, I thought…”I swallowed, but the pain hit like fire spreading under my ribs. “What… what happened? Did she…?”“You were shot.” His voice cracked

ZionDetective Marlowe walked beside me through the narrow hall that led to the holding cells, the rubber soles of her shoes clicking sharply against the concrete floor. The building always smelled like every bad decision ever made inside it had soaked into the air.I kept my hands clenched as we walked. Every step brought me closer to her. I didn’t want to be here. Every instinct in my body screamed that this was a trap, that Ellen thrived on attention the way oxygen thrived on fire, but Aria’s safety was reason enough. If Ellen had any information, any threat, anything hidden that could hurt her, then I needed to deal with it before it reached Aria’s ears.“Remember,” Marlowe said as we approached the reinforced glass window facing the cell, “she’s refused to talk to anyone but you. Not her lawyer, not the officers. If she says anything incriminating, I need you to keep her talking. We need her statement on the record.”I nodded stiffly. “I’ll get it.”When I stepped up to the glass

AriaI’d gone back to sleep shortly after Zion left to go see Ellen. I didn’t intend to, but the morphine in my system wasn’t giving me a choice. After about an hour, I finally woke up to a deep quiet. The hospital room had always hummed with something: machines, distant footsteps, nurses whispering at the desk, but now, everything sat still. Too still.My body still ached, stitched and tender in places I didn’t want to think about, but I had gotten used to ignoring the pain. Zion hadn’t returned from the station yet, but he’d promised he would “fix everything” before the detective came back to take more statements. I didn’t know what that meant, and honestly, I didn’t have the strength to overthink it.I shifted and adjusted my pillow, and took a slow breath, searching for my phone. And just then, the door slammed open so hard it bounced against the stopper.I jerked upright instantly as the pain sliced through my side. “What is going on?” I asked but there was no reply. Instead, thr

ZionBy the time I stepped out of Ellen’s holding room, my head felt like someone had been hammering against my skull from the inside. The fluorescent hallway lights were too bright, and every sound echoed in my bones. Detective Marlowe was waiting just outside with her arms folded.I exhaled shakily when I saw her. “She’s never going to talk,” I said, rubbing my forehead. “I tried everything. She just… she’s gone, Marlowe. Completely gone.”The detective watched me for a long moment before letting out a tired sigh. “That’s alright,” she murmured. “We didn’t really expect her to give us anything now anyway.”I blinked at that. “So what happens to her now?”“We’re transferring her to a high-security holding facility overnight,” she said. “After that, the court will evaluate if she’s mentally stable enough to stand trial. If not…” she shrugged, “…she’ll likely be admitted into a psychiatric rehabilitation unit.”A hollow ache settled under my ribs when she said that. I didn’t wish all o

ZionBy the time I reached the safehouse, my hands were still shaking and they wouldn’t stop, no matter how tightly I clenched the steering wheel, no matter how many times I tried to breathe freely. Ellen was out there, and she was free. Free out there somewhere with God knows who helping her, and the only thing echoing in my head was Aria. Aria. Aria.After a short while of driving, I pulled into the garage so fast one of the guards flinched. The door wasn’t even fully open before I shoved past them, nearly tripping over my own feet. My heart was pounding so violently it felt like it might burst through my ribs.“Where is she?” I barked.The guard pointed down the hall. “Living room, sir. She’s…”I didn’t wait for him to finish. I was halfway down the hallway when I heard her voice.“Zion?”She was sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, with an IV line still taped to her arm. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were swollen from stress and medication, but when she saw me, her face li