Perdita

9 | void of light

It had been a day since the rescue and she only woke up once. When we drove off from the dungeons, I'd laid down Ariana facedown on the car seats. Dante took the wheels and Ace was in the front. Elijah, who was trained in medical aid, sat back with us treating Ariana's back wounds. Halfway through the stitching, Ariana stirred and her eyes fluttered open. It was only a fleeting moment but for a second, our eyes connected. That was all I needed. It took my breath away. It broke me to see how dead and clouded over it was.

Void of light.

I stepped out of the shower, leaving my thoughts behind. Grabbing a towel, I quickly dried myself off. I needed to check up on her.

On my way out of the bathroom to the en-suite, I made sure to avoid the mirror. I didn't want to see that long jagged scar across my left face, just barely missing my eye. I had mixed feeling about it. Sometimes, it worked out in my favor - the scar added to my menacing aura. The other times, it just served as a reminder of one of the darkest times in my life.

I got dressed in a casual black T-shirt and grey sweatpants which was rare. I practically lived in my suits but today Ace let me off-hook to take time to gain back my composure. I knew it cost him to do so and it put more work on him. Especially with Father gone, an upcoming war, and Ariana on top of all of it.

How Ace didn't crack yet is beyond me.

It was probably considered to be selfish of me to take time off at the time when I was needed the most but Ace knew I wouldn't be any help with the numbness slowly creeping away and the emotions were getting the best of me.

By tomorrow, I would get my shit together and what we would do to the Russians will make hell look like heaven. Ace and I would make Satan look like a saint.

I knew Ace wouldn't allow himself to rest for a long time to come. Burying himself into work was his way to cope. I was aware it wasn't healthy but again, I would be being a hypocrite if I judged it and the Romano family never had the healthy ways to face things. We were taught violence was our first, last, and only resort.

I got out of my room and went to the guest room at the end of the hallway where Ariana was staying. Her old room was still the same since he was taken. The stuff in it was being taken out and replaced with basic and simple furniture. Elijah wanted Ariana to decorate her room herself when she was ready.

I took a deep breath before silently entering the room and there she was. She was clean - a female maids came in to wash her with towels before. She was tucked under the pile of blankets and her newly brushed blond hair, the only thing she'd inherited from her mother, was spread out across the pillow like a halo.

Now that there were no layers of dirt or blood covering her up, I could see her cheekbones were sunken in, lips dry and cracked, and skin pale from years of being starved of the sun. The king-sized bed made her already tiny frame even smaller. She was struggling to breathe. Even in sleep, she was in pain. Her forehead was creased and painful wheezing came out each time her chest rose and down. My fingers were twitching to smooth out the crease.

Salvo sat on a chair beside her, sleeping. His head was laid on the bed and his huge hand was on her small one. The room was dim, thanks to the closed blinds on the windows. Salvo had informed us that Ariana was scared of the light for some reason I cannot figure out.

"It still doesn't feel real." A small whisper came from Apollo whose body was sunken into a chair against the wall, his legs sprawled out. "I don't want to believe it yet." A humorless chuckle. "I'm here, just staring at her like a creep, waiting for it to sink in. But instead, my stupid mind keeps going to imagining Cata and her in some kind of the cottage, living a happy life."