Chapter 94
Lila
The cell door slammed shut behind me with a sound that echoed Into my bones.
Thick stone. No windows. I could taste the iron in the air.
No light except for the guttering flame of a single enchanted torch anchored high on the wall–too far to reach, even if I had the strength.
The walls were damp and uneven, covered in moss and something darker. The air smelled like mildew, rust, and old blood. And silence.
Not just the silence of a sealed space, but something crueler. Warded.
I could feel it immediately–the severing.
Ruby vanished from my mind like a candle snuffed out. No gentle hum beneath my skin. No voice. No presence: The sudden emptiness hit so hard! stumbled forward, bracing a hand on the rough stone wall as a wave of vertigo stole my balance.
My wolf was gone.
Not dead. But locked away from me. Completely.
The magic pressed in from all sides. Subtle, overpowering. It didn’t burn or spark–it confused. My sense of direction warped. I couldn’t tell if it was day or night. I couldn’t even tell how long I’d been here.
Minutes?
Hours?
My breath fogged in the cold. My arms wrapped tightly around my middle, instinctively guarding what little warmth I had left. My dress, once elegant, was torn along the hem and damp at the sleeves.
My skin ached. My knees throbbed from being dropped–not thrown, just abandoned–in the corner.
I pressed my back to the wall and slid down slowly, curling in on myself. If I stayed small, maybe the space wouldn’t swallow me whole.
The first time the door opened again, it was only a sliver. A faceless voice asked my name.
“Ashford,” I whispered, because that was true enough.
A pause.
“Who marked you?”
My throat closed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Another pause. Longer. Then the door closed again, and time unraveled.
I slept. Maybe. I think I dreamed once–my mother’s voice, telling me to run.
The second interrogation came after another bout of silence that stretched long enough to make me doubt I’d ever more questions. Did I conspire with the rogue? Was I bribed? Did I enter the selection with the intent to murder the King?
spoken aloud. This tim
re were
I answered nothing.
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Or maybe I did, I can’t remember. My mouth felt dry and foreign..
Each visit blurred at the edges.
But one thing was always the same.
Can I see Damon?” I asked. Every time.
“No.”
Sometimes it was spoken. Sometimes it was just the closing of the door.
I didn’t know if the pain in my chest was heartbreak or magic, or both. I clung to memories–his voice in the garden, his hand on my jaw, the way he’d said my name… my real name.
I repeated those moments silently, like prayers. If I held onto them tightly enough, maybe I wouldn’t unravel.
But even they started to slip.
His face blurred in my mind. His warmth faded from my skin. And
Ruby was a
ghost behind a locked door
Eventually, I stopped asking questions. Stopped pacing. There was
to
I folded myself into the narrow corner of the cell and rested my head against the
If Damon was back, why hadn’t he come?
go, nothing to fight.
wall. The cold bled into my bones. My body ached. My soul ached worse.
If he’d ever cared, why was I still here?
My eyes burned, but I didn’t cry. Crying felt like a luxury. Instead, I stared
In the dark, I whispered his name once, barely a breath.
at
ceiling until
Bache Wii couldn’t keep them open any longer.
“Damon.”
But the only response was silence.
I don’t know how long I slept.
It wasn’t restful. Not sleep, really–more like a drift into nothingness, where time didn’t follow rules and the dark was always watching.
My limbs were stiff, my mind sluggish, as if I were wading through fog. The ache behind my eyes pulsed in time with the dull throb in my wrists where th restraints had rubbed my skin raw.
was still curled in the corner when I heard the footsteps.
Not the guard’s heavy boots or the Council’s echoing presence. These were graceful. Sharp.
My spine went rigid. I lifted my head slowly, blinking against the torchlight that had dimmed since last I looked.
The cell door didn’t open. But someone stood just beyond it, framed by the bars like a portrait hung too high.
Nora.
Of course it was her. Come to gloat I imagine.
She was dressed in a tailored navy gown that shimmered like wet ink, her hair perfectly coiled and pinned in place. A picture of poise and control. She looked like she belonged anywhere but here. Which was precisely the point.
Chapter 94
“Sleeping beauty,” she murmured, her voice a silken thread. “You don’t look so radiant in the dark.
I said nothing. My throat was too dry to bother,
She walked slowly along the length of the bars, not looking at me at first. Just observing the call like it was an exhibit.
“They told me not to come,” she said. “Said it was cruel. That you were… deteriorating” Her gaze flicked down to me. “But I thought you deserved the courtesy of a farewell.”
I pulled my knees closer to my chest and pressed my back into the wall. Every instinct screamed for Ruby, but the silence inside me was absolute. I’d never felt more alone in my life.
Nora crouched slightly, just enough to meet my eye through the bars. “Did you really think no one would notice?” she asked. “That you could sneak your way to the throne like a rat?”
“I didn’t-” My voice cracked, barely above a whisper.
“Oh, you did,” she said, almost gently. “But I can’t blame you. It was a clever plan. Come in looking soft and fragile. Capture his attention. Hide you affair until it’s too late.”
She tilted her head. “But it’s not too late, is it?”
I stared at her, swallowing the lump in my throat. “He… he wouldn’t let this happen.”
A beat of silence.
Then her smile curved, slow and sharp like a blade. “Oh, darling. He already did.”
My stomach clenched. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” she breathed. “Damon returned this morning. I watched the way his face changed when he heard what you’d done. Betrayal doesn’t sit well on
royalty.”
“No-” I shook my head. “He wouldn’t believe you,”
“He didn’t need to,” she replied. “He’s not speaking your name, Elena. Not to the Council. Not to anyone.”
The sound of my sister’s name on her tongue relaxed my shoulder for the first time in… days? Weeks? She didn’t know the truth of any of it.
Nora stood again, brushing nonexistent dust from her sleeve. “It’s funny, really. You were so close. One mark on the wrong neck, one whisper to the wrong wolf, and it all fell apart. That’s the difference between us. I see the game for what it is.”
I pressed my forehead to my knees, as if I could hide from the words–but they slithered in anyway.
—“You’re going to be stripped of your title,” she continued casually. “Possibly exiled. Or maybe they’ll just pretend you never existed. Execute you, maybe
That would be easier for the King, don’t you think?”
“You don’t know what he feels,” I choked out, though it sounded hollow even to me.
“I don’t need to. I know what he said.” Her voice turned smug. “He said, and I quote, ‘she made her choice. Let her die with it.“”
The torchlight flickered. Or maybe I did.
Nora stepped back, smoothing her gown with elegant precision. “Enjoy the rest of your stay. imagine it won’t be long now.”
She turned, heels clicking against the stone floor, and disappeared into the shadows beyond the corridor.
The silence rushed in behind her like a tidal wave.
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Chapter 94
I didn’t scream. Didn’t cry. But I broke. Quietly. Deeply.
Because maybe she was right. Maybe Damen had walked away. And maybe I deserved it.
