Aria’s POV.
I couldn’t breathe. It felt like the air around me had been sucked away, leaving a suffocating void in its place. My chest tightened, my lungs burning as panic flooded my senses.
Zander’s grip on my wrist was like an iron shackle-strong, unyielding, and impossible to escape. I tried to pull away, twisting and jerking my arm, but it was useless.
His hand didn’t even budge, his fingers digging into my skin like claws. The cold, calculating look in his eyes sent a rush of nausea through me, making my stomach churn. This wasn’t the man I had once thought I could love, the man I’d been forced to marry despite his obvious hatred for me. No-this was someone far worse. This was a version of Zander I didn’t recognize, a man driven by rage and something darker that I couldn’t name.
“You’ve lost your mind!” I screamed, my voice trembling as it echoed down the stone corridors of my father’s castle. The sound bounced off the cold walls, but it did nothing to stop him. Zander kept dragging me forward, his long strides forcing me to stumble to keep up.
The guards stationed along the hallways just stood there, their gazes flickering with unease as they watched the scene unfold. None of them moved to stop him.
They didn’t even try. They were too afraid of him, too intimidated by his power. My father wasn’t here to intervene, and a bitter thought crept into my mind: even if he were, would he do anything? Or would he stand aside, just as he always did, watching from the shadows and pretending I wasn’t his problem?
Zander didn’t reply to my screams. He didn’t even glance at me. His jaw was tightly clenched, the muscles ticking with tension, and his eyes were locked straight ahead as if I hadn’t said a word. His silence was deafening, more terrifying than if he had yelled back at me.
It was like he had shut himself off completely, like nothing I said could reach him.
Panic clawed at my chest, making it hard to think, hard to breathe. My heart raced, pounding so loudly in my ears that I could barely hear anything else. I had spent weeks-*weeks*-trying to rebuild myself after everything he had done to me.
After he broke our mating bond without a second thought. After he divorced me like I was some disposable object he no longer needed. After he destroyed me in ways I didn’t think I would ever recover from.
And now, here he was, dragging me through these halls like a prisoner, treating me like I was guilty of some unspeakable crime. He was accusing me of things I hadn’t done, humiliating me for reasons I couldn’t even begin to understand.
“Stop!” I yelled, my voice cracking under the weight of my frustration and fear. I dug my heels into the ground, trying to slow him down, trying to force him to stop.
My boots skidded across the polished stone floors, but it didn’t make a difference. He was too strong, his determination unshakable. “You can’t do this!” I shouted, desperation creeping into my tone.
“Yes, I can,” he growled, his voice low and dangerous, like a predator warning its prey. There was no hesitation in his tone, no room for argument.
Tears burned at the corners of my eyes, hot and stinging, but I refused to let them fall. I wouldn’t cry in front of him. I couldn’t.
Crying would make me look weak, and if there was one thing I couldn’t afford to be right now, it was weak.
My throat tightened, and my voice trembled, but I forced myself to speak. “Zander, listen to yourself! You’re acting insane!” I hoped my words would snap him out of whatever madness had taken hold of him, but they didn’t.
He stopped abruptly, so suddenly that I nearly collided with him. He spun around, his grip on my wrist tightening as he faced me. His dark eyes locked onto mine, and for a moment, I was frozen. There was anger in his gaze, yes, but there was something else too-something deeper, something broken. It made my stomach twist, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. “I need the truth, Aria,” he said, his voice cold and sharp like the edge of a blade. His words cut through me, raw and unrelenting. “I need to know if you were with Kael.”
My heart twisted painfully at the mention of his brother. Kael. The name alone sent a wave of dread crashing over me.
Memories of him surfaced in my mind, unbidden and unwelcome. Kael, with his smug smile and cruel eyes. Kael, who had humiliated me, who had tried to take what wasn’t his, who had nearly ruined my life. And now, even in death, he was still here, lingering like a ghost, haunting me through Zander’s accusations.
It wasn’t enough that Kael had tormented me while he was alive-now, even in death, he was still destroying me.
“You think I slept with Kael?” I hissed, my voice trembling with fury as the words spilled out of me. My anger burned hot, fueling my courage.
“Is that what this is about? You’ve dragged me out here, humiliating me, because of *him*?” I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that after everything Kael had done to me, Zander would still find a way to blame me for it.