Chapter Three

***************

Between The Realms

Arya’s POV.

Every minute ticked by as I sat huddled in a corner, counting each heartbeat, each breath, each painful reminder of how long I’d been trapped in this new kind of cage in the human world, with the human who put me here.

This cell wasn’t like the ones back home. It was colder. More sterile. Lifeless. The walls were thick stone, carved with strange glowing runes I couldn’t read. No windows. No moonlight. Just silence that pressed down like a weight. A rusted cot sat in the corner, barely wide enough for a child. And the air? It fucking reeked of blood, sweat, and fear. Like every scream that had ever been spilled in here still lingered in the cracks.

“We’ll be fine,” he assured me again, voice low and careful, for what felt like the hundredth time in the past six hours.

But this time, those words made my blood boil.

“Could you just shut the fuck up?” I snapped from inside the cell, my voice bouncing off the cold stone walls like a slap. “You brought this on me! When you said your cage was safe, I believed you. And now I’m stuck in another one!”

My nails dug into my palms. My throat burned.

“You could’ve left me in mine,” I hissed. “But no—now my brother’s somehow buddy-buddy with the humans, and I’ll be getting a double portion of punishment.”

I paused, my chest heaving, not giving a damn about the shock plastered on his face. That expression didn’t matter not anymore. Not after everything.

“Do you think I care?” I screamed, voice shaking. “You said this place was a fucking safe space, until those guys bombarded us! I should’ve known you were setting me up the moment you started acting all nice. Even after you fucking rejected me!”

The pain rushed through me like fire, sharp, overwhelming, impossible to hold back. My voice cracked as it echoed through the empty space. I didn’t care how loud I got. I wanted him to feel it too. I wanted him to hurt the way I did.

But he didn’t say a word. Not even a whisper. He just stared at me with that same calm, unreadable look. And that tiny, annoying smile on his lips, the one I always said I hated.

Maybe I didn’t really hate it.

Maybe I hated that it made me feel... steadier.

And I didn’t want to feel calm. I wanted to be angry. I wanted things to explode. I wanted him to bleed the way I was bleeding.

“I think it’s my fault,” I muttered, barely louder than a breath. I clung to the torn edge of my shirt like it could hold me together.

“I shouldn’t have left my brother’s place,” I whispered, staring at the floor like it had all the answers. “I should’ve just let that old maggot marry me.”

He flinched, just slightly.

“At least then, I wouldn’t be here. Now I’m stuck not just under my brother’s thumb, but the humans’ too.”

The image of that man flashed in my mind, wrinkled, smug, with too many rings and a gaze that made my skin crawl. I hated him. But he was one of us. He wouldn’t have left me locked up in a cage like this.

I remembered the stories from when I was little how humans treated our kind like animals. How they took us apart, piece by piece, just to see what made us different. No kindness. No love. Just cold hands and cruel curiosity.

And I’d trusted one. I’d walked right into their world like a goddamn idiot.

Then the air shifted.

I didn’t need to look to know he was moving closer. I could feel him his presence, the weight of it brushing the edges of my awareness. Still, I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My body felt like stone, held down by too many thoughts and not enough answers.

Why wasn’t he angry? Why was he still here, looking at me like that? What did he even want from me now?

“This is not…” he started, voice low and burdened with something—remorse? Guilt? I couldn’t tell.

He swallowed, then forced the rest out. “I didn’t bring them,” he said. “But I knew they were close. I thought I could get you out before they moved. I miscalculated.”

I stared at him.

That landed like a blow. Not innocence. Not guilt. Something in between the kind of truth that cuts both ways.

Before I could answer, the sharp clank of the dungeon door interrupted him.

***********

The door swung open with a loud screech that shattered the silence. A group of men stormed in, faces hard and cold, their anger written all over them. At the front were the guards in green and silver—uniforms I knew too well.

My brother’s men.

“You fucking bitch!” one of them snapped, stepping toward me with his fist raised. His face twisted with rage, eyes bloodshot like he hadn’t slept in days. I flinched without thinking, bracing for the hit.

But it didn’t land.

The human guards stepped between us, shoving him back hard. The air instantly filled with tension, thick enough to choke on.

“You fucking slut,” he spat, glaring. “Making out in a prison now, huh?”

I stood frozen. Was that what it looked like? Just because I didn’t scream or fight back? Just because I didn’t move away?

“Let her be,” one of the human guards said coldly. His voice was calm, but there was steel in it. A warning.

Chains rattled. Rough hands grabbed my arms, forcing me forward. I stumbled barefoot across the cold stone floor, the chill sinking into my bones like rot.

*********

This time, they didn’t drag me the whole way. Halfway down the corridor, the Hollerith guard who’d tried to punch me earlier stopped swearing. Another adjusted my chains—looser. A human soldier snapped at him to “watch the wrists.”

Since when did either side care if I bruised?

Ahead, I caught a glimpse of Elias being yanked in the opposite direction, hurried whispers trailing after: “He’s not to be processed with the wolf orders.”

Then he was gone.

My stomach dropped. Orders? From who?

We marched through two more doors, and by then the guards had gone quiet—too quiet. No insults. No threats. Just stiff posture and that creeping, ceremonial tension that always came before punishments... or politics.

Everywhere I looked, faces watched. Some were curious. Others were disgusted. And then there were those who recognized me—and those who wanted me to suffer.

---

Just then, we were led into a room marked Conference Room 2. The moment I stepped inside, I felt it—those cold, piercing eyes watching me. My skin prickled. My stomach coiled tight.

Without wasting a second, I scanned the room. And then I saw him.

My brother.

He was smiling.

That smile wasn’t warm or relieved—it was sharp. Mocking. The kind of smile that said I told you there was no escaping me. A satisfied grin, like he’d finally won.

I couldn’t look away.

My eyes stayed locked on his, anger bubbling in my chest like poison. The others stepped in behind me, but all I could focus on was the way his smile slowly began to fade.

As the heavy door shut behind us with a metallic thud, his expression shifted—first into surprise, then something else entirely.

Guilt.

Shock.

And… fear?

Fear on my brother’s face. I had never seen that before. Not from him.

“What a perfect time to see you again,” came a familiar voice, laced with sarcasm. I turned toward it.

Elias.

The same human who had been locked up in the cell with me. Only now, there were no chains around his wrists. His clothes were clean. Fresh. He didn’t look like he’d just come from a dungeon. He looked like someone in charge.

I blinked, struggling to make sense of it.

“When did—” I started, but the words stuck in my throat.

I leaned toward him, the chains between my wrists clinking as the guards shifted position. My voice was barely a breath. “What did you do?”

His eyes flicked. once to my brother, once to the humans, then back to me. Something sharp and unspoken lived in that silence.

“What… what’s going on?” I asked aloud instead, voice barely steady.

No one answered right away.

Instead, two guards approached. And to my complete shock, they removed the chains from my wrists without a word.

I stared down at my freed hands. Then up at them. Confused.

Wasn’t I supposed to be a prisoner here? In the human realm?

What the hell was happening?