ARIA'S POV
Time moved strangely when you were terrified.
Hours felt like days. Minutes felt like seconds.
I'd lost track of how long I'd been here.
How long since Sarah had drugged me at the hotel. Since I'd woken up tied to this chair in this concrete prison with no windows and no hope.
My body ached everywhere.
Wrists raw from the zip-ties cutting into my skin. Ankles burning from the rope. My back screaming from sitting in the same position for so long.
But the physical pain was nothing compared to the fear.
The constant, gnawing terror that something would happen to the baby.
That I'd already lost them and didn't even know it yet.
That all the chloroform and stress and violence had already done irreversible damage.
I forced myself to breathe slowly. To stay calm.
Panicking wouldn't help.
Panicking would only make things worse.
I thought about Kael.
He was looking for me. I knew he was.
