My wrists were pushed into my hips, pinned by a pair of leather gloves that squeezed my forearms until the bone felt ready to snap. An armored arm banded across my chest, crushing the air from my lungs and pinning me against a wall of cold plate until I could not move.
When a guard knelt to slap a heavy shackle around my ankles, I lashed out. My bare heel connected with the underside of his chin, the jar of the impact vibrating up my leg.
I tried to fight, but there were too many of them.
Another set of hands clamped onto my knees, forcing my legs together until the iron bit deep into my skin, locking with a click.
“Stay down,” a voice spat near my ear.
I threw my head back with every ounce of strength I had left. My skull collided with the bridge of a guard’s nose and the hard edge of his helm.
Pain burst behind my eyes and the world tipped sideways.
The guards hauled me upright, my toes dragging across the cold marble as they began the long march back to the dark.
My mother’s voice rose in a spiraling wail that seemed to peel the very skin from my bones. I heard Lyra scream my name. My father was shouting too, but I could not make out any words.
I tried to turn, to catch one last glimpse of them, but my vision was a smear of salt and heat. Tears tracked hot paths through the grime on my face, blurring the world into a kaleidoscope of white marble and silver armor.
“See you at sunset, Kaelia.”
Evander’s voice followed me like a ghost, drifting over the screams of my mother and the splintering remains of my life.
I did not answer. I could not.
My tongue felt numb in my mouth, and the world had narrowed to the scrape of my shackles against the marble.
The trudge back to the cells was a hollow blur of grey stone and flickering torchlight. I walked because my legs moved, though my spirit felt as if it had been left behind on that courtroom floor.
My mind spiraled toward Talon. Was he feeling the echo of my terror through the bond? Was he already flying toward Haelen, or was I truly as alone as these stone walls suggested?
I did not expect him to endanger his life as well as his kin’s, but I did not want to be alone. I did not want to be here.
A sob caught in my throat, thick and tasting of the copper from my bitten tongue.
I did not want to die. I wanted to scream until the foundations of Haelen crumbled, but I was exhausted, drained of everything.
When we reached the dungeon, the air turned damp and dark once more.
We passed the neighboring cell, and the sound of fabric rustling against stone reached me. Meliory scampered to the bars, his face a pale moon in the darkness.
“How went the trial?”
I stopped, my gaze blankly fixed on a crack in the floor, watching a bead of moisture crawl toward the abyss.
“I will be dead come sunset,” I whispered hoarsely.
The words were so quiet, so final, that they seemed to drain the remaining warmth from the corridor. I heard his sharp intake of breath.
“No conversing!” the guard snarled, his hand slamming into my shoulder with a force that rattled my teeth.
He shoved me toward my cell, but as he moved, I saw the ring of keys swaying at his hip.
It was a fool’s gamble, a move born of a girl who had nothing left to lose.
As he reached to manhandle me into the cell, I leaned into him, letting my bound hands catch the cold metal of the ring. I felt the bite of the iron against my skin as I pinched the keys between my fingers, sliding them from his belt loop as silently as I could.
I let out a harsh, racking cough to mask the tiny jingle of the metal. He did not notice. He was too busy enjoying the power of his position.