All Chapters of ARIA: The Rise Of The Half Wolf Phoenix : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Kael's povBy the time Dante releases me and I zoom out the door, I already feel that something is wrong.Aria is dying. I know it the same way I know my own heartbeat. A pulse that is not mine drags through my body like a cry swallowed by the dark.I reach for Jaxon through the link but he didn’t answer. I try again.“Are you okay? What is happening?” My voice cracks with the question though I try to force authority into it. Silence comes back in reply. The kind that feels too heavy, too thick to bear.Did he enter the forest too?My heart slams with fear as fury follows right behind it but it isn’t aimed at Misha or the Coach or any of the people that have ever hurt her. The rage turns toward the forest itself, the thing that reaches for her, the darkness that dares to claim her.Something inside me snaps.Bones break, my skin shifts and my hands claw at the ground as the change takes over. Pain rolls through me as the silver poison in my veins mixes with the agony I feel from Ari

Kael’s povI sit in my car with the engine off and my hands still gripping the wheel. The administration building stands in front of me, tall and quiet, the way it always looks around this hour. Training will end in a few minutes and students will walk out and see me. I have no patience for their questions or to gossip. I feel too raw inside.If this were months ago I would have marched straight to the dean and handed Aria over without a thought. Things were simple then and my purpose was clear. My anger had a target: finish final year, take over from my father, take revenge for my mother’s death. All of it.Everything changed the day Aria stumbled into my world.I know the bond I feel now has gotten stronger, how far I can be willing to go for her is the evidence. Last night I felt her pain and I had vanished into the dark forest without a second thought. I did not think of my mother. I did not think of Dante or Jaxon who had been the only thing I had close to a family, I even ris

Kael’s povIsolation……That is what the council calls it, as if it is some harmless human prison with stone walls and a door.It’s not.It is something else entirely. The darkness around me is so unnatural. It is a living thing, thick and smothering, swallowing even my enhanced senses. I cannot hear my heartbeat unless I force myself to listen. I cannot smell the stone, metal, magic or air. There is only void.Yet the darkness isn't my main problem. It’s the pain from the silence where my pack’s bond should be.The bond that usually hums beneath my skin is muted, strangled down to a thin, trembling thread. Almost nonexistent. If my father did not already know something was wrong from the way I left him hanging in our last call, he knows now. He would have felt it the moment I was sealed in the room. I could feel the pain at the loss of my pack’s bond as if they were dead. Every single one and I know they will feel the same. They will think I’m dead.One loss would cripple most wolves

Aria's povFire! Screaming! BloodThe sounds crash into my head again and again, loud enough to rip me out of sleep. My body jerks and I sit up with a sharp breath, my heart racing so fast it hurts. My head moves from side to side before I even realize I am awake. I see that I’m still in Kael’s room. The sheets are damp with sweat and blood. LI press my palms into the mattress and stretch slowly, every movement pulling pain from my shoulders and back. My muscles ache like I have been beaten and dragged across a hard floor. A throat clears beside me.I turn to see the two wolves from earlier standing against the wall, both built like they could break me in half without trying. The one I now remember as Beta Dante stands with his arms crossed, his dark hair falling into his eyes, his face unreadable. Beside him is the other one, the one with tinted grey hair and sharp blue eyes. The one whose name I still do not know.With their looks, they should both be on the cover of a magazine o

Aria's povThere is a hole in my chest.That's all I can think about as I sat in the gym waiting for the coach to arrive, trying to avoid meeting anyone's gaze. I had even come face to face with Doris and she froze, before turning and scampering away. I have no energy in me to even wonder why or to confront her about what she did.Even Nathaniel and his gang preventing me from having my lunch moved nothing in me.I just don’t have any interest to antagonize anyone today.There is an emptiness right in my chest as if the forest took something from me, something very important. I can still feel death and darkness creeping up in me.I should have listened to Professor Claude, but instead I was too desperate to go home. Who could blame me?If the stupid school had helped me when I needed them, I wouldn’t be feeling like this right now.“Evans!”My head snapped up realizing the coach is already here and the students have begun their warm up.When did that happen?“If you’re still sick, the