My room.
Flint and Steel were asleep in their cell, their massive bodies slumped against the cold stone. Bunny and her children huddled together in the other cell, the little ones curled against their mother like frightened animals.
Working in the mines must have zapped all their strength.
Good. I was glad they were asleep. I didn’t want to see the disappointment in their eyes—the reminder that I’d bound myself to Ari for nothing. That I’d trusted Darius and been made a fool.
Nor did I want them to see the heartbreak in mine.
Ari locked the manacles back around my wrists. The cold metal bit into my skin, but I barely felt it. I was numb. Hollow.
“I suggest you get over this pity party you’re having.” His voice was ice. “Get your shit together.”
I stared at the floor. What did it matter anymore?
He grabbed the back of my hair and yanked my head back, forcing me to look at him. His red eyes glowed in the dim torchlight.
“I’m going to find a way to break those binding bracelets and set your magic free.” His breath was hot against my face. “And when I do, I expect you to use your power to get us out. All of us.”
He released my hair abruptly. My head fell forward.
“You don’t want to disappoint me, bitch.”
He left, his footsteps echoing up the stairs. The door slammed behind him.
And then—only then—did I let myself break.
The pain I’d been holding in erupted without warning. Quiet, pent-up sobs wracked my body, each one tearing through me like shattered glass.
My legs gave out. I hung from the chains, tears streaming down my face, and let the grief consume me.
Darius was mad.
Alanna had won.
I had lost. Again.
All my worst fears came rolling back, drowning me in their truth.
Unlovable.
Rejected.
Alone.
I’d spent my whole life fighting against those words. Trying to prove them wrong. Believing that someday, somewhere, someone would finally choose me.
And for one beautiful, impossible moment, I’d thought Darius had.
I was an idiot.
The dungeon door creaked open.
Then shut.
Footsteps thumped down the stairs. Slow. Deliberate.
Alanna coming to gloat? Darius to humiliate me again?
