Aria moved swiftly through the halls, each step echoing with urgency, her bare feet slapping against the cold stone, her body wrapped in the long coat she had barely managed to throw over herself.
Her hair clung to the back of her neck with sweat, her heartbeat drumming in her ears. The guards at her door didn't dare stop her, though they exchanged uneasy glances at the haunted look in her eyes. She didn't look at them. Couldn't. Her mind was a storm, her thoughts consumed with a single, obsessive urge: to scrub Zyren from her body, to cleanse herself until her skin bled if she had to.
But the moment she shoved open her door, everything inside her ground to a halt.
Her breath caught. Her vision tunneled.
There, sitting on the edge of her bed, was a girl with red hair.
