Solitary

Chapter 59- Tempature Checks

Nikolai

I stood at the entrance of her cell in complete shock. Victor behind me, unable to speak. The light of the dawn was just barely breaking over the horizon. But with the daylight came the sudden silence that replaced the hours of screaming.

When Victor opened the door, I had my mind set on ripping him a new one, but I saw the look on his face. And I had never seen Victor with that kind of look.

Victor had lived for six hundred years and he never once had this look on his face, the look of someone who was deeply haunted by something.

I decided we would talk about it later.

My only thought was Solus. The screaming had worried me but the minute it stopped, it was the first time in a long time I had felt fear.

The entire night was only filled with severe anxiety. I couldn't stop my hands from shaking, everything around me felt as if it was closing in. I couldn't catch my breath and I found myself overthinking every aspect of my life.

My mind went from thinking about my life to thinking about Sol's. But in her mind it was hazy, and loud? As if there were too many thoughts running through her head. Images of her childhood flashed in my mind, but I could barely catch any of the details.

Then I realized that this feeling was severe anxiety.

Solus by now had somewhat been able to manage it, but when she was younger, this was the only feeling she could understand. She was always confused and everything seemed to be in fragments, so she was scared.

Memories flashing through her mind of her shaking hands that she would clasp together, her constantly looking around every corner in fear of something.

My beast growling within me as we knew the source of these memories. We knew why she was like this.

I had already started to make that bastards life hard. But Solus didn't need to know just yet. Not until she felt she was ready.

But here I stood in front of her cell. Solus laid on the stone floor, motionless, her chest moving up and down signifying she was still alive.

But something was wrong.

My eyes falling to her hair that had grown insanely long and covered the entire floor. I reached behind me to Victor and placed the key in my hand. Opening the cell the hair spilled out, her scent filling the entire space of the dungeon.

Stepping on the hair was unavoidable, but it didn't matter as I needed to get to my mate. Walking carefully over to her as my eyes roam her body. Covered in deep purple bruises around her ribs, her legs, and around her neck.

It pained me to see her this way.

She was covered in sweat as her eyes looked to nothing,
I knelt beside her, my hand hovering over her face but unsure of what exactly to say or do. My eyes went back to Victor, but he was staring at the floor, refusing to look towards Solus.

But it didn't seem to be out of respect, it was like he couldn't bring himself to look at her.

Looking back at Solus as I moved strands of hair out of her face.

"Sol?" I whispered. The black in her eyes immediately disappeared the moment I said her name. The gold slowly returning, looking like golden embers.

But she didn't move. She didn't speak. It was only her eyes that gave the reaction. The rest of her was like ice cold stone.

"Solus, I'm going to pick you up now and we're going to get you cleaned up. Okay?"

I didn't wait for a response knowing full well I wasn't going to receive one from her in this state.