Dark Hearts (Golden Heart AU)

Chapter Twenty-nine

The days following were hard, not only on Ryder but everyone involved Ryder kept falling in and out of clarity and a lot of bodily harm. Ryder had come out of his room everyday with new injuries on top of the old ones. Scratch marks across his cheeks, bruises on his wrist and sides it was just really hard to watch.

When he wasn't screaming and crying for help, he was the same as he had always been proud and suave pretending nothing was wrong, trying to hold together a facade that was clearly falling apart. He would mutter to himself, afraid to tell Ella because she already didn't trust him and thought he was going soft. He couldn't let her know that he was failing, he was afraid of what she would do to him.

"I need a pin." Evie groaned, throwing the book down. They were at another meeting but this time just with the royal four. Ryder using his magic to hide his bruises and scratches "I can't administer this properly without one."

"I'll get one from Jazzy's things." Carlos offered.

"No, the pins they used while they might have been disguised as something else were untraceable. Meaning they wouldn't leave body marks or solutions behind. Even the smallest drop of this out in the open and Ella will find out what we're doing.

Uma perked up, "I have one." She pulled the key out of her shirt and uncapped it.

Evie smiled and unclipped the pin from her neck. "You see they thought that by splitting up what was used they'd be better protected. But to do that you need to trust who you work with. And trust and fear are two very different things." she prepped the needle before turning to Doug, Lonnie, and Ben, "Who wants to go first?"

They were all terrified but Doug, trusting Evie more than anyone else, held out his hand for her. She gives him a soft smile and a kiss on the cheek before Injecting him. There's a soft white glow under his skin meaning the two injections canceled each other out. "Alright, the other two."

"Do I get a kiss too if I go now?" Lonnie smirked.

"You've been spending too much time with Harry." Evie fondly rolled her eyes and freed her and Ben. "There, and good timing too, with me and Gil heading in tonight, we're going to need all the help we can get."

A dark atmosphere took over the room and everyone realized the dangers that laid ahead. If Ryder found them, they would be in so much trouble it was game over, but if not, they could save his life. There were so many If's, could's and, maybe's that no one was really confident in themselves the only thing that made them sure of it was that the instructions had come from Ryder. A version of him that was stuck in his own head screaming for over a decade. A version of him that deserved so much better and deserved love and happiness. Ryder was just a kid who had been pulled from his bed as a baby, he deserves a second chance heck he deserved the first chance he was denied.

~~~

That night Gil and Evie had scaled the Castle wall and fell through Uma's window. "That's a lot harder than I remember." Evie huffed.

"Well, you spent the last couple of months with your butt on a throne." Evie looked up at her with a dead expression as Gil Helped her up.

"Come on, we have to get this done." He pulled Evie into the corridor and followed Uma to Ryder's room.

"Can you do it from the hall or do you have to be in the room?" She asked nervously.

Evie winced, "we have to be looking at him." Uma contained her freak out but nodded and opened the door. "Once we're in close the door and move our bodies across the hall. Bring them back out in thirty minutes."

"And if you don't come back in thirty minutes?"

She shrugged, "Pray I guess there's not much else we can do." She sat on the floor cross legged