Zarah was feeling drowsy, woozy and disoriented, when the door to the interrogation room finally opened.

Her return to the world of the dead had been clumsy, the pain of her bullet wound insistent enough to make the process difficult. But eventually, she'd managed it, and found the police waiting for her, ready with gauze, disinfectant and handcuffs. They'd been gentle enough when patching her up, but it'd done little to dull the ache of her arm, and sitting in this isolated room for hours certainly hadn't help.

But at least she hadn't been alone.

Danny and Cassandra had already been handcuffed to the table when Zarah was brought in, their eyes flitting constantly to the one-way mirror Zarah was sure Arelie stood behind.

She understood their curiosity; she'd spent the first hour here watching the mirror herself and muttering what she knew of Arelie to her companions. She was beginning to realise how little that was though.

She'd always written Arelie off as a psychopath, as someone who took joy from reckless destruction. Leah and Arelie had been as bad as each other in their actions, but where Leah confessed her crimes with murmurs and haunted eyes, Arelie had admitted hers brashly, with an ugliness that made Zarah shift away.

If it hadn't been for the wound blazing along her forearm, Zarah would've thought this was all a joke. To be arrested was one thing, but to be arrested by Arelie was something else entirely.

Eventually, her exhaustion caught up to her though, and Zarah found her curiosity weakening, her head dipping down onto Danny's shoulder as she fell into a fitful sleep.

She wasn't sure how long she'd dozed, caught in the haze of her mind, when the door finally creaked open. The noise made Danny tense beside her, and when Zarah looked up, she understood why.

Alice was being brought into the room, her face frozen somewhere between confusion and indignity as an officer led her to the chair beside Cassandra and cuffed her to the table alongside them.

Danny's eyes swung to Zarah.

"Who's that?" he breathed, his brow furrowed.

"That's Alice," Zarah whispered. "She adopted Leah."

Danny's gaze darkened, but before he could reply, Cassandra was speaking.

"Alice?" she asked. "As in Alice Caldwell?"

Cassandra's eyes were fixed on Leah's adopted mother, her face draining of colour. For a moment, Zarah frowned in confusion, but then one of Danny's stories replayed in her mind; one of a woman, married to Brenton Caldwell, who'd been killed by the rebels after asking for help from the S.I.S. Danny had told her the story quietly, in the middle of the night as she kept watch for Jared; his voice deep and comforting in the darkness.

"Yes," Alice said, eyeing Cassandra with a slowly dawning recognition. "You were part of the S.I.S, weren't you?"

Cassandra nodded, but continued to stare, her gaze uncertain.

Zarah cleared her throat.

"Alice, are you okay?" she asked. "Why did they arrest you?"

Alice's eyes trailed beyond Cassandra and settled on Zarah.

"Isn't it obvious?" she said. "They want Leah."

"You're right, we do."

Zarah's eyes swung to the door to find Arelie leaning against the frame. She was clad in police gear, the royal blue bright against the bleached walls, and the shock of what she was coursed through Zarah once again.

"You've all been brought here because you were close to Leah Azemar," Arelie said, her words hard. "We need to know where she is right now, and what she's planning. Any assistance you can offer would be greatly appreciated."

Danny shifted beside Zarah, his handcuffs clinking against their restraints.

"Leah's in the live world," he said, his voice cold. "You didn't need to arrest us to find that out."

Arelie moved into the room with a dry smile, letting the door slam closed behind her as she pulled out the chair in front of them as sat down.

"Yes, but she doesn't always stay there, does she?"

Silence answered Arelie's question and she leaned back, watching them all with narrowed eyes. There was something so familiar, and yet so foreign about her. She was still the girl Zarah had known, she still talked like her, she still looked like her, but there was a confidence there Zarah had never seen before, a channelling of all that bitter energy.

"I'm sorry," Zarah said, her head pounding as she stared at Arelie, trying once again to process what was happening. "But did I miss something? Since when have you been on the right side of the law?"

Arelie looked over at her, eyes dark. "Just because you know me from school –"

"Exactly," Zarah said, her voice deadpan. "School. Not the police academy, not FBI training. When did you become an officer?"

Arelie rolled her eyes. "I've always been an officer. I was undercover at Narra High."

Zarah blinked. "But you were always getting arrested."

"God, you're dumber than I remembered," Arelie sighed, kicking her feet up onto the table and shooting Zarah a withering look. "Of course, I was. How else would I have been able to come to the station without arising suspicion?"

Zarah continued to stare, unable to take this whole situation as seriously as she should've.

"I'm sorry, Officer," Cassandra said, glancing between Zarah and Arelie cautiously. "But can you explain why exactly we've all been arrested? We haven't broken any laws."

Arelie's gaze swung to Cassandra, her head tilted and her expression calculating.

"No, you haven't," Arelie admitted. "But this is bigger than that. I'm part of a task force within Boarder Control that deals with breaches of the natural restraints our world sets, and since Leah's gotten back to the live world, she's repeatedly used her ties here to break those laws, dragging people from this world to her as a fucked-up form of protection."

Danny kinked his eyebrow up into an admirable expression of disdain. "And what are we supposed to do about that?"

The grin Arelie shot him was full of knives.

"You're going to help me stop her."

"No." Danny drawled, his expression bored.

"No?" Arelie echoed, a manic smile taking over her face. "I'm sorry, you must've misunderstood. You don't get a choice."

She leant towards Danny, all humour disappearing as quickly as it'd come, her eyes dark and threatening.

"Your precious sister is going to break our world to pieces if she keeps going the way she is," Arelie said. "Do you want to know what happens to the dead she's pulling back there? They're losing their minds. First, they start having blank patches in their memories, spells of dizziness and hallucinations, and then they start blacking out for days on end, committing violent acts they can't even remember."

Arelie's kinked her head in Zarah's, her gaze cold.

"If you don't believe me, ask her."

Zarah's face heated as she felt Danny's eyes flicker to her, Cassandra tensing beside him. The motions were almost imperceptible, but their reactions were like a hot rod against her spine.

"I haven't hurt anyone!" Zarah exclaimed.

Arelie gave her a mocking smile. "Not yet. But you're already blacking out, aren't you? Seeing thing that aren't here?"

Zarah swallowed, glaring at Arelie angrily. She didn't want to admit Arelie was right, didn't want to consider what that meant for herself.

"Don't look at me like that," Arelie scoffed. "I'm not the one doing that to you, Leah is."

"How do you know that?" Cassandra asked. "How do you know it's directly related to Leah?"

Arelie leaned forward. "I've been talking to some of the people she's pulled there. Do you want to know what they've told me? They said that whatever Leah's feeling, they feel it tenfold. She's taking away their will, and that leaves a mark. That emotion gets imprinted, somewhere in their subconscious, and since the only times she's pulled multiple people to her is when she's bloodthirsty..."

Arelie shrugged.

"And this is only the start. She's ripping at the fabric that holds the two worlds apart. If she keeps going, who knows what'll happen."

Arelie lent back, watching them all through half lidded eyes, almost lazily, as they processed what she'd said. Zarah felt like she'd been slapped, and found herself caught somewhere between disbelief and anger.

"Well, what are we supposed to do about all this?" Danny asked. "We can't exactly stop her from connecting here."

Arelie smiled. "No, but you can agree to let my men tail you. Once she appears again, we'll take it from there."

Danny's jaw tightened, his eyes growing hard, and Zarah had an unexplainable urge to put her hand on his arm, give him some kind of reassurance.

"And if we don't agree?" Danny ground out.

Arelie smiled. "Then you'll officially be under arrest."

The silence that followed was loaded, and Zarah could feel anger soaking the air, clogging her throat.

"What are you going to do to her if you find her?" Alice asked softly.

Arelie shrugged. "First, we'll just try talking to her. Maybe she doesn't realise what she's doing."

"And then?" Danny asked.

The smile that fell onto Arelie's face was like the drop of a match. It made Zarah think of petrol, of exploding cans, of burning buildings.

"Then, we'll do whatever's necessary."

...

Hello everybody!

What did we all thing of the chapter? Things are heating up in the world of the dead, that's for sure! 

Next chapter will be out in two weeks. We'll be catching up with Leah and Jared again then hehe.

This chapter is dedicated to @isabellabrown79. Thank you so much for your unending support of the Mors Mortis Trilogy and for all your many many votes in the Fiction Awards! :D 

Until next time!

- Skylar xx