I fought as they dragged me away, but it was useless. The door slammed shut behind me, and darkness crushed down on my chest.
The silence was broken by soft, terrifying hissing. My skin crawled. Something brushed against my ankle. I screamed and slapped at the floor, panic exploding inside me.
“Open the door! Please! Let me out!” I pounded until my fists burned and split. No one answered.
The air grew thick and suffocating. My skin erupted in rashes, itching and burning until I clawed at myself without realizing it. Hours passed. My throat went raw from screaming, and eventually I slid into the corner, shaking and gasping for breath.
When the door finally opened, I thought I was saved.
Light flooded in. I pushed myself upright, barely standing. Thorne stood there, backlit by the hallway. For one fragile heartbeat, I thought he might pull me out.
Then his voice cut through me, colder than anything I’d ever heard.
“Hold her down.”
Before I could react, two bodyguards rushed me. My arms were pinned, my jaw forced open. A bitter liquid was poured down my throat. I choked, coughing violently until blood splattered onto my clothes.
“What… what did you give me?” I croaked as fire spread through my chest.
Then it hit me.
My skin flushed red in blotches. My throat tightened, every breath slicing like knives. I knew this pain. I was allergic to seafood.
Thorne’s voice came calmly through my panic.
“You put peanuts in Lilith’s food. She’s in the hospital now. I warned you not to touch her, but you never listen. This is what she felt.”
He just stood there watching me writhe on the floor. No anger. No regret. Just cold indifference.
“I didn’t…” I tried to speak, but the words fell apart as pain ripped through me. No one cared. No one listened.
The last thing I saw was his face—calm, distant—as darkness swallowed me whole.
---
“Aria. Wake up.”
His voice pulled me back from the dark. My eyelids felt impossibly heavy, but when I finally opened them, Thorne was standing beside the bed. He exhaled deeply when he saw me conscious and reached out to brush my hair away.
I turned my head without thinking.
He froze. Then he pulled his hand back, as if I were the one who burned him.
“Aria, I know you’re angry,” he said, his voice clipped and icy. “But this time, you crossed the line. I can’t keep indulging your behavior.”