Chapter 23 · They Took My Sister Below

I woke up with stone against my cheek and blood in my mouth.

Not my room. Not my bed. The air down here smelled like wet rock and something else. Something dead.

I tried to sit up and my wrists screamed. They'd tied me with rope that felt like it had glass woven into it. Silver thread. I could feel it burning through my skin every time I moved.

"She's awake." A man's voice, flat and bored.

Footsteps. Two sets. I kept my eyes half-closed and tried to breathe like I was still out.

"Took long enough. The Thorn said she'd wake fast."

"The Thorn says a lot of things."

I knew that name. Drake Thorn. Ronan's cousin. The one Mara didn't trust.

I cracked my eyes open just enough to see. Stone walls. No windows. A door with three locks and a blood seal painted across the frame. Two guards in gray uniforms I didn't recognize. Not palace wolves. Not anyone I'd seen before.

They weren't looking at me. One was cleaning his nails with a knife. The other was staring at the door like he'd rather be anywhere else.

My pendant.