Episode 61 — Where Love Holds the Knife
The boat rocked under the pale dawn, wood groaning with every push of water. River mist curled around them like breathing ghosts, hiding the waking city behind soft white veils.
Aria lay half-conscious across splintered boards, breath so thin it barely stirred the blood-slick cloth pressed to her side. Raian knelt over her, every movement betraying the pain slicing through his ribs. His hand — the one that had killed for her, bled for her — now trembled at the edge of helplessness.
Not again. Not now.
---
Beside him, Saira slumped against the stern, face bloodless, hand clamped to her own wound. Her scarred jaw was set tight, but her gaze never left Aria.
"Keep pressure on the wound," Saira rasped, breath shaking. "She's still bleeding."
Raian nodded, voice caught in a vise of terror. His palm pressed down harder, cloth turning darker under his fingers.
"Stay with me, Aria," he whispered, bending close. "I can't lose you. Not when I just found you."
---
The two boys who'd helped carry her huddled near the bow, faces pale as river stone. One kept glancing back, fear hollowing his eyes.
"Boss…" he murmured, voice cracking. "There's blood everywhere."
"I know," Raian snapped, harsher than he meant. Then softer, broken: "I know."
The boy flinched, guilt twisting across his face. But Raian's attention snapped back to the only thing that mattered: Aria, her breath ragged and slow, lashes dark against bloodless skin.
---
A distant shout rose from the riverbank — Malik's men, black silhouettes breaking through mist.
"Row!" Saira hissed, knuckles white around the oar.
One boy scrambled to help, pushing water in panicked strokes. The boat lurched, water slapping hard against its rotting hull.
"They're coming," the boy panted. "They're coming!"
Raian didn't look back. His whole world was Aria: the warmth fading under his hands, the pulse that fluttered like a trapped bird.
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"Stay," he breathed again, forehead pressing to hers, voice raw. "Fight, Aria. You're stronger than you know."
For a heartbeat, her lashes fluttered. Dry lips parted, voice so faint it was more thought than sound.
"Raian…"
"I'm here," he rasped, swallowing blood and fear. "I'm here."
Her hand twitched, fingers ghosting over his wrist. The contact burned into him, brighter than any dawn.
---
Memories came, sharp and vicious:
— Her scolding glare in the ER, telling him to stay still.
— The first night in the warehouse, when she'd pressed trembling hands to his wound despite her fear.
— Her laugh — rare, soft, unexpected — the sound that had made him think maybe there was a road back from the darkness.
Not just another body to bury. Not her.
---
The shouts grew louder. In the mist, dark shapes split and rejoined — a hunter's dance.
"They have a boat," Saira hissed, voice cracking. "Faster!"
The boys rowed with every ounce of fear-strained muscle, water spraying up in bright arcs.
Raian's gaze locked on Aria's face. Her lips had gone pale, skin clammy under his touch.
"Don't you dare leave," he whispered, voice splintering. "Don't you dare leave me to this world alone."
---
A tremor ran through her lashes. Her eyes opened, glassy and unfocused.
"I'm… cold," she breathed.
"I know," Raian rasped, shifting closer. His body blocked the wind, blood dripping from his own wounds onto the boards beside her. "Stay with me. You'll be warm soon."
She blinked, pain clouding her gaze. "Hurts…"
"I know, love. I know." His voice cracked around the word love, unspoken until now, as if saying it out loud would shatter something fragile.
---
A cough tore through her chest, thin blood staining her lips.
"Aria!" His hands shook as he pressed harder, willing life back into her.
She swallowed, breath catching in a wet rasp. "Don't… blame yourself," she whispered.
"I already do," he confessed, words raw and broken. "Every second. But I can live with guilt. I can't live without you."
---
Saira's voice cut through: "Raian, listen. If she stops breathing, you do what you have to."
His head snapped toward the scarred woman, fury flashing in his storm-grey gaze. "Don't you dare say that."
"Then be ready," Saira rasped. "If you freeze, she dies. Move your guilt aside and fight."
His jaw clenched so hard pain sparked up his temple. Fight. Always fight.
---
The boat scraped against something unseen below — a half-sunken piling. Water sloshed in, wetting the boards around Aria's hair.
One boy swore, voice shrill with terror. "We're sinking!"
"Keep rowing!" Raian roared, raw authority cutting through fear.
For a moment, the boy hesitated — then kept moving, teeth gritted against panic.
---
"Raian…" Aria whispered, so faint he had to bend closer.
"I'm here," he murmured, his breath brushing her temple.
Her hand twitched, fingertips grazing his wrist. "I'm… scared," she confessed, voice breaking.
"So am I," he whispered back, eyes stinging with unshed tears. "But I swear, I won't let go. Even if the whole world turns on us."
---
Another cough wracked her, blood foaming at the corner of her mouth.
"Aria!" he gasped, voice cracking. "Stay with me. Breathe!"
Her eyes rolled back — breath caught in her throat.
Time split open. The river fell silent. The world narrowed to his shaking hands on her chest, the blood under his palms, the pulse slipping away.
Not her. Please. Not her.
---
"Saira!" he rasped, voice torn ragged.
"Start compressions!" Saira shouted, pain twisting her face. "Now!"
Raian moved, hands locking over her sternum, pushing hard, rhythm desperate and clumsy.
"Breathe, damn you!" he hissed between counts. "Breathe!"
Aria lay limp, blood-dark hair spread on the boards, dawn painting her skin in gold and shadow.
---
"Breathe!" he shouted again, voice cracking.
Nothing.
Terror threatened to drown him — darker than any enemy blade, deeper than any wound.
"Don't you dare leave," he rasped, mouth lowering to hers. He gave two rescue breaths, taste of blood and salt and prayer.
Another round of compressions, harder, faster. "Come back," he gasped, each push an order to the universe itself.
---
Then — a flutter.
Her chest lifted weakly under his hands, breath catching in a fragile rasp.
"Aria," he whispered, voice shaking. "Stay."
Her lashes fluttered. A shallow, shuddering gasp slipped past her lips.
Raian choked out a sound — half sob, half laugh — tears breaking free at last.
---
Behind them, Malik's men broke the mist — a low, dark boat knifing through water, silhouettes bristling with weapons.
"They're here!" the boy cried, voice breaking.
Saira forced herself upright, pain twisting every muscle. "Row! Harder!"
Blood trickled from her wound, but her scarred face stayed locked on the threat.
---
Raian gathered Aria against his chest, head bowing over her as if shielding her from death itself.
"I've got you," he whispered, voice hoarse with pain and love. "I've got you."
Her breath stayed shallow, but steady — each rise of her chest a miracle.
---
The boys rowed until muscle tore and lungs burned. Water foamed around the bow, mist tearing apart in dawn wind.
The enemy boat closed in — blades and guns glinting cold in morning light.
"Faster!" Saira spat, voice ragged.
---
At the last heartbeat, a low horn bellowed upriver. A rust-eaten cargo barge, massive and blind, drifted across the channel — cutting off Malik's men with slow, implacable steel.
Their shouts vanished behind the barge's iron flank, oars skidding to avoid collision.
Saira exhaled, a sound halfway between relief and collapse.
"We're clear… for now," she rasped.
---
Raian slumped, breath ragged, pain flooding back into his broken body. But Aria stirred weakly against his chest, breath shallow but alive.
"Don't sleep yet," he whispered, voice trembling. "Stay. I'm right here."
Her lips parted. A whisper — almost lost to wind and water.
"You… came…"
"Always," he rasped, tears warm on cold morning skin. "Always."
---
Beyond the mist, the city waited — full of enemies, secrets, and choices yet to come.
But for this heartbeat — bruised, bleeding, terrified — they were together.
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Teaser for Episode 62:
As Aria drifts between fevered dreams and waking pain, Raian must face the truth: to save her life, he may have to surrender his own freedom.