Alanna and Ari climbed the stairs and slammed the door shut. The sound echoed through the dungeon like a tomb sealing shut.
Despair clung to me like the sweat and dirt coating my skin. I hung my head and let the tears fall, splattering onto the filthy floor below.
Fate.
The nickname Darius had given me seemed cruelly prophetic now. My fate had always been the same, hadn’t it? Rejected by my coven. Abandoned by everyone I’d ever trusted. And now, fated to die alone in a dungeon while the man I loved married a monster.
It was as if the three Fates themselves had been laughing at me all along. Spinning my thread just to cut it short.
I leaned my head against my trembling arm and closed my eyes.
Time slipped by. I didn’t know how long I stayed in that pathetic position. Minutes? Hours? It all blurred together.
The creaking of the door jerked me upright. Who was going to visit me now? Darius? Ari? The queen come to gloat again?
Footsteps padded down the stairs. Soft. Almost silent.
A grin appeared first at the bottom of the stairs—wide, gleaming, floating in the darkness. Then golden eyes materialized above it.
Chester.
“Fate.” His voice curled around me like smoke. “Three threads. Which one to choose?”
It was as if he had read my mind earlier.
He drifted toward me, his body flickering in and out of visibility.
“Chester, what are you doing? You could get caught.”
“Caught?” His eyes crinkled with amusement. “The cat is patient. Waiting. Watching. Then, when the time is right...” He paused, his golden eyes gleaming. “Pounces.”
He reached into his jacket and opened his palm. Two keys glinted in the dim torchlight.
My heart stuttered. “You got the keys?”
He reached up and fitted the key into the manacle around my right wrist. The lock clicked.
My arm dropped.
Pain exploded through my shoulder—muscles screaming after being stretched for so long. I bit down hard on my lip, tasting blood.
Then the second manacle. Another click.
My other arm fell, and I crumpled to the ground. My legs couldn’t hold me. I lay there on the cold, filthy stone, trembling, gasping, feeling the blood rush back into my hands like fire and needles.
Free. I was free.
Well, not completely. The binding bracelets still circled my wrists, cold and heavy, blocking my magic. But I wasn’t hanging from chains anymore. I could move. I could breathe.
I pressed my forehead against the stone and let out a sob—half relief, half exhaustion.
Chester crouched beside me, his golden eyes patient. Waiting.
After a long moment, I braced my hands on the ground and pushed myself up. My legs shook beneath me, barely holding. “Thank you. That feels so much better.” I rubbed my raw wrists. “But I thought Ari was supposed to get the keys to unlock the chains and these binding bracelets.”
“The pet is busy.” Chester’s grin sharpened. “Attending the queen. Fetching. Sitting. Rolling over.”
He placed the second key in the binding bracelet and it snapped open. Magic gushed through me—a flood breaking through a dam. I gasped, grabbing Chester’s arm to steady myself.
