Semua Bab Bonds at War: The Untouched is Mine: Bab 121 - Bab 130

ARDEN The ride back to the Callahan estate was quiet.The village celebration had ended with polite smiles, but there was a heaviness in the air no one wanted to address, especially not after the question about Bethany having Viremia settled among those present. We had left before dessert was served.Now, only the distant hum of the engine filled the silence. Cade was behind the wheel, his grip light, but his brows furrowed. I kept my gaze on the window, watching trees blur past us, but my thoughts were far from the road.“You already knew,” Cade said quietly.I nodded, letting out a slow sigh. “I found out when she visited us.”There was no point hiding this from Cade. “When she went out to the balcony and I followed her,” I added. “She tried to hide it, but I saw her blood-tinged hands. That’s when I knew.”Cade didn’t respond for a moment. “I see,” he finally muttered.“You’re not surprised?”He shook his head, gaze still trained forward. “Not really. You’ve been quite close late

ARDENI woke up in cold sweat despite not having any nightmares. It just happened spontaneously. Normally, there would be some kind of stimulus. But for this, there wasn’t any.My body had grown tired for the last couple of days, especially with the unending campaign period. Honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way because I was doing it with Cade for the sake of Fenra.However, seeing the recent polls, where Mr. Winters’ rating had increased and Cade had decreased, made me a little bit uneasy. It seemed that the news about Bethany’s Viremia had shaken some of the voters’ opinions.Bethany hadn’t released a statement since. I have been texting her to say that everything was alright, but even then, she was quiet. I hoped she would visit soon. For some reason, I missed her.I turned to my side, hoping to hold Cade’s hand, but I found that he wasn’t there. My brows slightly raised. I remembered him hugging me as I slept. However, he must have slipped away in the middle of the night to

ARDEN“Seriously, why did you have to come here?”Tessa sighed by my side, leaning against the cold brick wall. If I told her that behind this wall were three skeleton bodies of young women like us, would she be freaked out? She definitely would.But she didn’t need another source of trauma. I glanced at her and found bruises on her neck, a cut on her brow, and red marks on her wrists and arms.“Are you alright?” I asked before anything else.“I’m fine,” she waved me off with the same sweet smile that always made me feel better. “You shouldn’t have come, though. I was planning on leaving some evidence that would lead to Mr. Winters once he kills me.”“Imagine—a mediocre female student dies in the hands of the esteemed headmaster. That would make a great headline.”“There are three lies in that statement,” I muttered. She turned to me and raised a brow.“First, you’re not mediocre. You’re genuinely one of the prettiest girls I’ve ever seen. Second, that wouldn’t make a great headline.

CADEI couldn’t shake the thoughts swirling in my mind about what Bethany had said. She was Arden’s mother. The images in my head refused to align, leaving me in a state of confusion. We were now in the car, heading South, and a nagging instinct told me that Arden wasn’t up North where we’d been searching. My parents had also alerted the guards to conduct a thorough search of our territory from top to bottom, but they hadn’t provided any updates since.I stole glances at the woman sitting beside me. Her fragile frame was curled up in the passenger seat, a blanket draped across her lap. In the days since we last saw her, it was evident she had lost even more weight, deepening the lines of worry across her face.“Is it bad?” I asked, my question directed at her condition as I sped through the stillness of the night.She managed a weak chuckle, her gaze fixated on the scenery sliding past the window. “I’ve had worse,” she muttered. “Don’t think about me. Focus on Arden; that’s what mat

ARDEN Finally.The sound of the shower running through the walls was music to my ears. For once, I was grateful Mr. Winters was a narcissist who enjoyed long, indulgent showers with whatever weird soap he probably made himself. I didn’t waste a second.I turned to Tessa, who was still slouched against the corner, pale and barely conscious.“Stand up,” I said urgently. “We’re escaping.”She blinked at me sluggishly, her lips cracked, eyes sunken. She looked awful, and I hated seeing her like this. My voice softened. “Come on, Tess. You can do this.”She swallowed, groaning slightly as she pushed herself off the ground. Her knees wobbled, her frame trembling under the effort.“How?” she rasped.I didn’t answer. Instead, I moved quickly across the room, toward the back wall. Cade and I had found this hidden latch weeks ago when we were lost in this place. I remembered the exact spot now. My fingers worked fast, pulling the edge of the rug and pushing against the warped floorboard benea