Page 53 of Awakened Gifts
“Since I found Aria this last time, it feels like my savage is clawing me to pieces, trying its damnedest to get out. When we find her this time, I need to rest and regroup, possibly take a break of some sort. The last thing we need is for me to lose it, especially since we have no idea what my savage will be like. No others like me have lost it—no half full blood, half hybrids. That bitch was lying about going savage—it was all staged to trick Aria and me.”
Kellan purses his lips, probably confused about why I’m suddenly speaking to him about things other than the necessary. I guess I’m too tired to filter my thoughts.
“My savage seems to be so damn calm right now. I spent a lot of time feeling like it was clawing to get out—usually when you touched Aria in front of me. Now… I’ve never felt so at peace.”
We reach the interrogation room, which forces our unusually civil conversation to come to a halt. Kellan nods toward me, and then he heads in. I don’t even know if I can view this. Just seeing Fricks might set me off. I’m too close to the brink of insanity, and I need my head clear to find Aria. The last thing I need to do is stalk after my fucking counter that I don’t want.
After thirty minutes, Kellan walks out, and his grim expression leaves me with little hope.
“Nothing?”
He motions toward the doors, and I jog to catch up when he starts moving faster than I anticipated.
“No, he gave me more than plenty. He gave me five locations Alice prefers to be. He also told me that Alice knows Aria is a master tracker, and she has numerous traps laid out for her to follow. I’ve already sent a text out, and everyone is divvying up the faux trails to see if they can track down Aria. They’ll call if they run into any trouble. I figured we could take the trail that seems to be the most promising.”
Kellan and I working together without wanting to kill each other. This world really is fucked up.
“These could be dead ends. It’s nothing more than conjecture to assume she’ll fall for it. Aria is by far one of the most brilliant trackers ever known. There’s a better chance of her figuring out it’s a trail for a trap.”
He nods, a slow grin tilting up. “Of course she’ll know. But she knows with a trap comes people to question. She’s falling into their trap to set one of her own. That’s conjecture with logical integrity.”
Okay. So apparently Kellan is smarter than I’ve been giving him credit for. It’s a lot easier to see someone for who they are when they’re not after your girl.
We reach the cars quickly, and he takes the driver seat, considering he has all the Intel and the tracking abilities. Several of my men follow behind us without being told to do so. Sometimes I forget I’m the commander. Especially lately.
“How far from here?” I ask as he slings the car in drive and jerks away from the parking area.
“About thirty miles from here. Fortunately not too far. The reason I think Aria would choose this trail is because it’s the one that is the closest to the United border. She knows Alice would have left from wherever she was staying before, and she would have been trying to keep tabs on the new Aria. She’s not trying to draw her out this time. She wants to find her and destroy her in her own sanctuary. Since this is the only trail that isn’t deep within the Unaligned borders, it’d make perfect sense for her to use it, because Alice will be close by, and the sooner she finds her, the better—in her opinion.”
He’s definitely impressing me. I only wish I didn’t have to hate him later. But I will. The second Simone reconnects him to Aria, I’ll hate his fucking guts.
Kellan drives like man on mission, and I watch for anything at all just so that I feel useful.
“How’d you get Fricks to talk so quick? He wouldn’t give us any information on how to find Alice before.”
Kellan’s cocky smile quirks up, and I tilt my head. “Araya still doesn’t know Alice is her mother, and honestly, none of us want her to know. Especially Fricks, since he’s the one who saved her. I threatened to tell Araya why her daughter is in danger right now, and then I might have mentioned she’d probably slay his wife right in front of him. It was a brutal threat, but he sung like he couldn’t tell me everything fast enough.”
I’ve really been underestimating Kellan this entire time.
I get a little dizzy, and I’m forced to steady myself with both hands while closing my eyes. I can feel, rather than see, Kellan’s concerned look.
“You really do have to sleep at some point. You’re of no use to Aria if you’re not on top of your game.”
The fucking burn is back. It feels like my insides want to cave in on themselves to give way to the inner beast. I’ve had more olophine than I can remember, but I break the skin on my wrist while breaking open another bottle, and then I push the meds in.
“Just up ahead is where the trail is supposed to end—”
Whatever he was going to say gets lost when we top the hill and stare across the plains at the massacre underway. My heart starts pumping too fast, burning up the meds I just used, and a strong tingling sensation spreads over me. It’s her.
Bodies are being flung around, shots are being fired, and Aria is in the center of it all. Even though she seems perfectly fine and in control, my whole body is tensed while dread sucks out my air.
Kellan skids to a halt, stopping us several hundred yards away, keeping us at a safe distance.
“We have to find a way to keep her from fucking vanishing again,” he says on a long breath, running a hand through his hair.
I can’t focus on anything as I watch savage hybrids attack her. She deflects each attack with effortless ease, but my heart won’t stop pounding. My ears start ringing as the burn I’ve been fighting grows to be more intense, forcing me to my knees as my spine tries to detach from my body.
Everything comes to me in one large blast. All the pain, the misery, the fear… It hits me without mercy, and I can’t even brace for impact. All the lingering, unresolved pain from Aria’s staged death, feeling like I had lost the only thing worth living for… all of it. It drives through me and cuts me deep, and then the rest of it is like salt on gaping open wounds.