The truth and the pain

Aria's Pov

I couldn't sleep. Kaine's words from our run kept echoing in my head, a refrain that left me restless and confused.

I tossed and turned in bed, replaying Kaine's words over and over in my mind. How could I possibly process what he had just told me? That he had been forced to choose between killing my mother or letting seven innocent children die? It was an impossible dilemma, one that no one should ever have to face.

I sat up, running my fingers through my tangled hair. The room felt suffocating, the walls closing in around me. I needed air. I needed to think.

Throwing on a jacket, I wrote a note to Sage, who was gone for the night on pack orders and slipped out into the cool night.

The moon loomed low in the sky, I wandered without direction, my feet leading me further into the depths of the woods.

'Aria, you need to breathe,' Davina's voice echoed in my mind. 'This isn't going to be easy to come to terms with.'