"You need to get her out of here."
"I tried Lex. But she won't leave without you. She's safe, for now. We'll figure something out once things calm down a little, okay?"
"Okay. But get her out of here as soon as you can. Tell her she can't go to the village below us. That's too close. She has to go further."
"I will."
"And the rest of my people? What happened?"
Aria looked away.
"Aria?"
"Warren made all of them leave. He-he kicked them all out. I don't know where they're going to go, but...but they're alive."
"That's good," he said, nodding. But the look on his face told her that it was anything but.
"Take your shirt off," she said. She was pretty sure that the guard wouldn't let her stay long. And if she tried to fight it, he might not let her through next time.
"Funny, I always imagined you saying that under different circumstances," he said, smiling at her.
How he could joke at a time like this was beyond her. She shook her head. She opened her kit and made sure to keep everything sterile.
"This is gonna hurt," she said, cursing herself for not thinking about bringing him something for the pain.
She took out a small pair of medical scissors and widened the wound until she could see the small bullet embedded into his flesh.
He winced as the scissors gripped the bullet, pulling it out. She dabbed a few bandages with antiseptic and cleaned the wound.
Finally, she took out a suture kit and sowed the wound up. She put a little more antiseptic on it for good measure before covering it with a sterile bandage.
"Make sure you keep this clean," she said, helping him put his shirt back on. She could tell that he was in pain, even though he was trying to keep himself composed.
"Will do," he said.
"Lex, I swear I will get you out of this," she said. She didn't know-how. They didn't have a plan yet. Hell, she had no idea exactly how she'd fix this.
"I believe you," he said.
He was still sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. She'd stood in front of him on her knees, so she leaned forward to hug him, careful not to put too much pressure on his left shoulder.
He hugged her back. He nuzzled his head into the crook between her neck and her shoulder, and at that moment, she could almost feel how scared he was. And she knew it wasn't fear for himself, but for the others. For Grace. For his people.
As much as she wanted to stay there in that dungeon, holding him and taming all of his fears, she knew she had to leave.
"I have to go," she said, pulling away from him. "But I'll be back later. Try and get some rest."
"Alright," he said, nodding.
She got up to leave, knowing that the longer she stayed, the harder it'd be to go.
But she stopped at the bottom of the stairwell.
"Why did you say that you wished you would have met me sooner?"
He stayed quiet for a few moments.
"Ask me again when all of this is over," he said.
She gave him a nod before turning and finally leaving the dungeon.
"Thanks," she said to the guard. She didn't actually want to. But she had to stay on good terms with this man if she wanted to see Lex again.
He remained impassive.
She half-walked, half-dragged herself to her room. She'd told Warren to tell the guards that it was hers. She didn't really feel like being there without Lex; it was their home. But she couldn't bear the thought of some guard, or worse, Warren himself, taking their room and calling it his own. It was their home. It was where everything began.
Exhaustion and despair made it hard to go all the way to the bed, so she laid down on the small couch they kept in their front room. Her mind wouldn't stop racing. Mostly with thoughts of Lex and how to save him and his people.
Revenge was the only other thing on her mind.
Somehow, she fell asleep.
She felt like only a few minutes had passed when she heard a knock on her door, but the sunlight streaming into the room through the balcony doors told her that it'd been a few hours, at least.
She got up to answer the door, her head throbbing.
Her mother stood on the other side. Aria let her in without a word.
Katy looked around the room like Aria had done that first night. Aria was sure that Katy was surprised. She'd probably expected something more sinister than what she'd found.
"Nice room," she said, sitting down on the couch.
Aria nodded and sat down beside her mother.
"So, you're the queen?" Katy asked, her voice full of skepticism.
"Yeah, mom. I have a crown and everything," Aria said, already pissed off.
"Aria, why are you acting this way? We didn't know-"
"Yes, you did. I know that Lex sent his men to find you. And don't try to pretend like they didn't reach you. I know they did. But you chose not to believe. You-"
"Aria, we couldn't believe them! When we heard that you'd been taken, how could we possibly believe them? After all, we heard?"
"But Lex told them who you were!”
"Aria-"
"No, mom," Aria yelled. She had been tired when she woke up, but now she was full of anger and energy, thinking about what had happened the night before. "We were safe here. Happy. And you-you ruined everything!"
"We didn't want to! A lot of us don't agree with Warren and his group! But there are a lot more of them. I had to find you. I did what I did; I agreed to this so that I could find you," Katy said. Her voice was pleading, desperate.
"What about the rest of those people? They had families, mom! They were just trying to protect us, protect this place, and you killed them!
"No, I didn't, Aria. I've never killed one of them."
"But you could have done something, you could have-"
"What?"
