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The nurse came into the kitchen a few minutes later.

“She is stable and sleeping. Surveillance is active, and we will wake her every two hours to monitor her.”

“Call me if anything spikes. I’m going out for a drink,” Ares told her.

“Of course.”

I left him there and walked into the living room. Emily looked up the second she saw me.

“Is Azaria going to be okay?”

I sat beside her. “She will be.”

She studied my face long enough to make me wonder if she believed me.

“Let’s go to dinner.”

“I’d like that,” she said.

I got down in front of her and helped secure her walking brace before checking that everything was sitting right.

“You good?”

She nodded.

I picked up my son, and he wrapped his arms around my neck. The three of us headed out to the car so we could stop at the hotel and change before dinner.

As we pulled away, I looked back at the mansion sitting out in the French countryside.

My sister was in there fighting to get her life back, whether she understood that yet or not.

Ares had decided he was staying for the fight.

CHAPTER 10

Azaria

THE FOLLOWING MORNING

“He Let Me Run”

Iwoke up groggy with my stomach touching my back and nausea taking over me. I knew exactly where I was and why I was there, which made my stomach twist even harder. My parents had sold me to a French family I barely knew, and my own brother had stood beside them instead of me.

I pulled the IV out of my arm and climbed out of the massive bed. The second my feet touched the floor, I headed for the double doors to the suite and tried the handles.

Locked from the outside.

Of course they were.

I went to the next door and found the bathroom. I barely made it to the sink before I started dry-heaving over the porcelain. Nothing came up except bile that burned on the way out. My stomach cramped so bad I had to grip the counter until it passed.

That was when I remembered I hadn’t eaten in three days.

I lied to my mother on the plane when she asked if I had eaten before we landed in France. There wasn’t much to eat before that anyway. I had sold everything I owned weeks ago and had been surviving off whatever I could get my hands on.

I splashed cold water over my face and looked at myself in the mirror. My skin was pale, exhaustion sat all over my face, and my eyes looked hollow.

Royalty, huh?