Rubbing my hands down my face, I stare at the computer one last time, watching the active cameras in The Academy and seeing all the girls walk around like nothing is happening.
Like Bella and Darlia aren’t missing.
“Fuck!” Slamming the laptop closed, I walk out to the kitchen where Bella and Marcus are going over the Zone maps, trying to find somewhere they could keep Darlia. They won’t find anything, I’ve looked at least a hundred times.
My eyes are heavy with exhaustion. I haven’t slept more than three hours a night since Darlia went missing. I’m practically dead on my feet, but I can’t stop. Not until Darlia is safe and out of the torture lab they have her in. My hands shake from the exhaustion I’m putting myself through, trying to find my girl.
I will find her, I made a promise.
“Hey,” Bella says, walking over to me. Her voice is soft and nervous; everyone knows I’m on edge. She’s holding a mug of coffee between her hands, and holds it out to me. “Marcus made it, but sent me.”
“Any updates?” She shakes her head as I open the fridge, forcing myself to eat the sandwich she made me earlier. I’m an asshole, but I’m not going to offend the best friend of my girl. Not when I’m already in trouble with Darlia.
“Nothing yet, but we will find her,” Bella says, trying to sound reassuring.
“What about the source, anything from them?” Marcus shakes his head this time.
I feel the need to punch something, anything. How can she just disappear? Every Zone is riddled with cameras, yet she doesn’t show on a single one. And my reward has only brought up a list of dead ends. Not even three million and the promise of becoming an elite can find her.
“I’m going out,” I say, grabbing my jacket and keys before walking out the door and getting into my car. The engine purrs to life as I take off down the driveway. I don’t have a plan, I don’t even know where I’m going. But I need to clear my head.
The memory of Darlia driving plays in my head. Her smile wide and beautiful, the flush on her cheeks as the adrenaline coursed through her, speeding down the highway. Not that she knew she was speeding.
Fuck, I miss her.
I can only imagine what they’re doing to her. While we don’t have a location, all her medical information is still updated on the servers, and I’ve seen it: electrocution, drowning, stabbing, starvation, dehydration, unnamed medications.
They are torturing her, treating her like a lab rat.
Even I know eventually Darlia will break, if she hasn’t already. She’s strong, so fucking strong, but everyone has a limit. The only issue is if she talks, all my plans will go down the drain. And I’m completely fucked if she tells them about Marcus.
I found out no one saw him when the house was raided, a small mercy for the biggest failure of my life. While Marcus is still unknown to The Academy, they took the only other thing I would risk my life for.
Pulling off to the side of the road, I grab my phone, calling the number of my source to try and get something, anything. I’ll take crumbs of information at this point.
I dial the number and press the phone to my ear.
“Hello?”
There’s a pause on the other line before I hear a breathy sigh as Wolvrin responds.
“I have a lead.”
Chapter 28:
Darlia
Three days. It’s been three days in this hell. For three days, I have had no food, water, or any sort of contact. They shut the lights off three days ago, and haven’t turned them on since.
Everywhere I look is darkness, just like how it feels in my mind right now.
The Academy are liars, Cayden is a liar, Marcus probably, too. There’s no one left to trust other than Bella, and I haven’t heard anything about her. Did she get taken back to The Academy?
The door opens for the first time in what feels like forever, and Doctor Langdon walks in with a chair, sitting down in front of me and looking at me carefully.
“Good morning, Darlia. How did you sleep?”
I could slit his throat right now and no one could stop me, but what’s waiting outside those doors? I have enough strength for one kill, but any more than that and it will be me who’s being killed. I decide to play their game, for now.
