"It's fine," I insist, grimacing as the doctor wipes an antiseptic wipe over my wound all over again before inspecting it closely. "Really."

Gia shakes her head and purses her lips. She's been like this ever since the attack yesterday. 

"It's always better to be safe than sorry," she murmurs. "I can't have you dying from infection now, can I?"

"She's right," Poppy pipes up from the seat in the corner of the white room, her legs tucked up to her chest as she smiles at me.

I don't reply, instead watching the doctor as he fusses around me, telling Gia that it's not looking as good as it did yesterday and that it's best to stitch it up instead. As he gets to work, I grit my teeth through the pain, looking up at the bright ceiling light to distract me. It's glowing. A yellow tint to it... almost like Emilia's hair...

Wow, I'm desperate.

I grit my teeth, returning my eyes to the medical room around me.

"How many men did you lose?" Poppy asks.

Gia purses her lips. "Eleven," she answers. "But it would have been a lot more without the two of you."

I swallow the lump in my throat and look down at the wound on my arm. The doctor plunges the needle back into my skin. "You're welcome," I force myself to mutter.

"Do you see now?" Gia exclaims. "This is why everything is going to take time. There's no way in hell that we can even try to let the South interact with the North... or vice versa. It would be an utter bloodbath."

She's right.

I've learned more here than the others probably have visiting the East and West of England. There's no way that Callum is tearing that wall down. I'll die trying to stop him.

"But you two know that anyway, don't you?" Gia continues. "You were living it."

"Yeah," Poppy replies softly.

Gia turns towards me. "What did Emilia think?"

"What?" I'm surprised by the question.

Gia smirks. "Did she prefer the North or the South?"

"I have no fucking idea," I snap, wrenching my arm away from the doctor the minute he ties the final knot.

The North. She prefers the North. Who wouldn't?

"Where is she now, Zac?" Gia asks, leaning back against the wall.

"How the hell would I know?" I argue.

Gia shrugs. "I'm just curious," she answers. "Your friends caused me a lot of problems back in the North."

"Well, you caused them a lot of problems too," I counter. She raises a brow, crossing her arms over her chest.

Keep it together, Zac.

"I'm glad that everyone is okay!" Poppy inputs suddenly. "You know... the three of us! We survived the attack." She's babbling, attempting to change the subject.

"I don't care where Emilia is," I lie to Gia.

She just nods, thanking the doctor for his work before turning and heading out the room without another glance at me. Poppy shoots me a small, panicked smile before heading after our sister, clearly attempting to enact what she calls 'damage control'.

I think I handled it pretty fucking well. Don't really know why Poppy needs to repair what I said... Although, I guess I was a little brash. But I always have been. There's nothing new there.

The doctor reaches for my arm again but I shake my head, yanking it away before standing up and grabbing my shirt from the table beside me.

"I'll be fine," I assure him. He huffs before handing me a small white pill to take. I roll my eyes, curling my hand around it before leaving the so-called clinic and chucking the tablet out of the first open window I come across.

I head straight back to my room, ignoring Sam's dad when I see him in the corridor and not even giving him a hello.

*~*~*

I've been sleeping for hours, lying on my good arm and snoozing the day away. There's nothing else I can do, Poppy and Gia completely AWOL and I don't fancy spending time with any of the lovely Enforcers.

What happened yesterday changes nothing. We were hardly fighting to save any of them... it was more for our own benefit.

A sudden yell that sounds strangely like my name has me furrowing my eyebrows. Slowly, I sit up, elbows sinking into the mattress. Listening hard, I don't hear it again and wonder whether I'm just imagining things now.

Just another way for my mind to act against me when I need it to focus.

Next thing, I'll be seeing Emilia in front of the bed.

Not that I'm complaining...

But then I hear it again. Cocking an eyebrow, I slowly stand and hesitantly walk towards my large window before holding up the drapes. Pushing my face against the window, I peer down to the world below. I'm just about able to see the gate from here, narrowing my eyes and squinting at what's happening.

I nearly collapse at the sight of Heidi and Jordan. They're battering their hands against the gates, both of them screaming my name and shaking the metal bars. There are three Enforcers approaching them, batons drawn — clearly intent on grabbing hold of them and taking them prisoner.

They know that.

Heidi and Jordan aren't stupid.

They wouldn't be here unless...

Emilia.

I bolt away from the window. Panic claws at my chest. Grabbing onto the door, I'm flying down the corridor faster than I ever have before, whipping through the halls and tripping down the stairs.

I'm outside in record time, advancing on one of the Enforcers and yanking hold of his uniform, chucking him out of the way before quickly dealing with the other two. Terror is working in my favour right now. I'm far more determined than even they are. I sprint towards the gate with purpose.

Jordan and Heidi stop struggling the second they spot me. Heidi's shoulders drop as she visibly relaxes. 

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I exclaim, not stopping until my hands curl around the bars of the gate. My eyes beg them to turn around. It's the only way that the Enforcers will let them go... but I know that we're already on dangerous turf here...

"Zac!" Heidi exclaims breathlessly. "It's Emilia. She's missing."

Missing.

Missing.

The word cuts into my chest, slicing it open. A strangled gasp of air leaves my lips before I close my mouth, swallowing.

I'm about to reply when someone cuts me off.

"Missing?" Gia's voice is cool. Calm. Unphased. I grit my teeth. "Well... Zac would like that, wouldn't you?" she comments.

She's using the situation to hammer home her distrust of me. This is a test. An unpredicted, unreliable fucking test...

I stare out the gate at Jordan and Heidi, my jaw ticking. They have to understand what I'm about to do. How I'm going to react. Terror is clawing up my windpipe but I swallow it down and force a shrug.

I have no idea what missing means... but for all I know, Gia is involved in it. And I'll never be able to help Emilia, nor find her, unless I play this twisted game.

"That's correct," I force the words out before turning away from my friends.

They're instantly calling out to me, and I hear them fight against the Enforcers as they scream and curse me to high hell. I'm walking away from them and that's all they know. That's all they can see.

My jaw tenses, my hands curling into fists.

I ignore my friends' cruel, piercing jibes and bear the brunt of their words. I need to hear it, I need the fire to fuel me. Even though I'm a fucking volcano ready to erupt, struggling to contain myself, my chest is buzzing, charging like a damn battery.

Emilia. Missing.

Fuck.

Before I realise where my legs are taking me, I shove the door of Poppy's room open in anger. She flies up from her bed, eyes wide, instantly grabbing the knife from her beside cabinet before she sees that it's me.

Her eyes widen even further at the state of me.

"Zac, what is it? What the fuck is wrong?" she exclaims, heading towards me.

"Emilia is missing." My voice doesn't even sound like my own, deep and haunted like someone from a horror movie.

Poppy gasps before shutting the door behind me. "Missing? What happened?"

"I have no idea," I reply through gritted teeth. "Heidi and Jordan just showed up at the gate. Gia arrived before I could ask them anything."

"Shit," Poppy breathes out, reaching up and running her hand through her hair.

I'm in an impossible situation, our operation well and truly fucked. There's absolutely no way that I'm leaving Emilia wherever she is just so I can continue lying to Gia. Pretending to be a family. Scouting for information.

Emilia is more important.

"Fuck!" I yell, reaching out and grabbing hold of the lamp that sits on the table beside me. Launching it across the room, I watch as it shatters into a thousand pieces, falling noisily to the floor. It does nothing to sate my anger and I grit my teeth, running my hand through my hair as I curse.

I can't help myself, wiping everything else off the table before turning to the dresser beside me and hauling it away from the wall, watching it clatter to the ground.

Poppy doesn't look even slightly phased by my actions, instead standing back to let me do what I need to.

"Poppy," I say softly. Apologetically. "I have to leave. Fuck whatever this is. I have to find Emilia."

She nods, walking over to the other side of the bed and picking up her rucksack. "I completely agree," she tells me. "I'm coming with you."

"Zac?" Gia's voice comes from outside the room. Poppy's eyes widen before she drops her bag back behind the bed, kicking it out of sight and crossing her arms across her chest.

The door opens, revealing our put together, brunette sister. She raises her eyebrows at the smashed mess but I say nothing. I don't even both to unclench my fists as I stare her down.

Gia visibly exhales before nodding slowly, almost like she's having a conversation with herself. "I have a surprise for you," she tells me. Without wasting a single second, she turns away and leaves the room.

I grit my teeth, throwing a glance over my shoulder at Poppy. "Stay here," I order before following Gia.

It's probably a trap, but right now, I don't even care. I'm past any kind of civility with Gia, Emilia's health has always and will always come first.

I'm hot on Gia's heels, watching her stupid ponytail flick back and forth as she walks down each and every corridor, her heels tapping against the hard wooden floor.

We turn right down a thin, dank looking passageway, somewhere that I've never been before. She tugs open a small, creaky door to reveal stairs and we quickly walk down them, the mansion becoming darker and duller than I ever knew was possible.

By the time we get to the bottom of the steps, I shiver at the cold damp that surrounds me. Not even the rats would want to live down here. It's dark, the ceilings dripping, a stale stench saturating my nostrils. Only a couple of dim light bulbs illuminate the way forward.

I let Gia lead us forward, silently. There are no words spring to mind, nothing to say to her... even though my head screams at me to ask her where the fuck we're going.

I'm silent until we step towards a line of cells, the sight taking me straight back to Killmoor. I falter slightly, inhaling a sharp breath and clenching my fists once more. I slow as reality slams into me. Gia plans to lock me up for merely greeting my friends at the gates.

Are they down here too?

Fuck. How the hell am I going to get all of us out of here? It's miserable and disgusting, I can't imagine spending one night in here — let alone with my family.

Gia is a monster, she's a tyrant for even having a prison like this...

My sister stops suddenly in front of a cell, turning on her heel and smiling at me before gesturing for me to look inside. Reluctantly, I let my eyes slide away from her, over to the left and through the dark metal bars.

There's a body inside.

They're curled up into a tiny ball, a dirty mess of chaos on the grimy looking ground. 

"Hey!" Gia takes a metal baton from the Enforcer beside her, sliding it along the bars to create a loud, ear-numbing sound. I cringe.

The figure inside the cell shoots upright, her hair a birds nest, covering most of her face. The bright blue eyes are the only thing that give away her identity, the rest of her covered in blood and dirt.

She's shaking as she holds herself up on her elbows, staring with disgust at my sister.

I'm frozen.

She spits at my sister before Gia looks towards me and smirks. "She's charming," she exclaims.

I look back at my darling wife just as her eyes widen at the sight of me. She tries to move towards me, letting out a squeal of pain as she does so, her arms giving way beneath her. I'm clenching my teeth so hard that I'm surprised they haven't shattered, my hands coiled back into fists as I observe what they've done to my feisty, powerful girl.

"Here we are, Zac," Gia says.

My head snaps towards her as three Enforcers step up behind her. I can feel another behind me as my jaw twitches. She cocks an eyebrow before smirking.

This is it — Gia's final test.

"Surprise," my sister exclaims before crossing her arms as though she's brought me a fucking birthday cake.