He smiled faintly. Empty. “Nothing.”
54
Iwoke to the sound of murmuring in the dark. The cold stone beneath me bit into my skin, the dull ache in my body a stark reminder of where I was. Captivity. Nyxaria.
I shifted, my limbs stiff, my body aching from the beating. But it was my leg that was the worst. Even the smallest movement sent a fresh wave of searing, nauseating agony tearing through the broken bone, the fragile healing tissue screaming in protest. I refused to let it show.
The others were speaking in hushed tones, their voices carrying through the cell, laced with exhaustion and quiet frustration.
“Morva and Aesrielle must be working on something,” Brynelle was saying. “They won’t leave us here.”
Darian let out a dry, humourless laugh. “They can try all they want, but what the hell could they possibly offer in exchange for a gods-damned High Lord? Let alone half his court?”
A bitter silence followed, settling over us with a suffocating weight. No one had an answer.
I blinked away the last remnants of sleep. How long had I been out? Hours? A full day? Time bled together in this place.
Before I could ask, before I could sit up, the cell door swung open with a deafening clang.
Everything stilled.
We knew what came next.
Guards stormed in, moving with precise brutality, their boots scraping against the stone. Darian snarled as rough hands wrenched him upward.
Shaelith fought, but there was only so much resistance she could give in chains. They dragged her up anyway.
They hauled me to my feet next.
Agony exploded through my leg.
A shockwave of searing, unbearable pain radiated from the break, shooting up my thigh, sending fire curling up my spine. My breath caught violently in my throat, black spots bursting in my vision.
But I didn’t make a sound.
The moment their hands closed around me, Varyth moved.
His snarl ripped through the chamber, feral, raw, dangerous, his body already lunging toward me despite the collar choking his power.
One of the guards nearest me flinched beforekicking out with brutal precision.
The impact was sickening.
A loud crack.Varythjerked backward, bloodspraying from his nose, his head snapping to the side from the force of the blow.
Icried out, struggling against the hands dragging me away, but the guards were already hauling me toward the doorway,forcing me to walk—forcing me to put weight on my shattered leg.
A fresh wave ofsuffocating, black-out painroared through my entire body.
I bit downso hard on my tongueI tasted blood.
Varyth shook his head, blinking past the pain, his expression wild with fury. “Don’t,”he snarled, a command to stop fighting.
ButI wasn’t fighting anymore.
I was being dragged.
Andevery step was hell.
