ログインKiara's POV The first thing I felt was the weight in my chest. It was heavy and uneven, like something was sitting right on top of me.Then the second thing I felt was pain.It wasn’t sharp like the ones I was still getting used to. it was dull and aching, the kind that lingered deep under the skin, the kind that made breathing feel like a chore. My eyelids fluttered open, and for a second, everything around me looked hazy. Like I was underwater, but at the same time still not drowning. What the hell was going on?“Kiara?”The sound of my name was all it took to pull me out of my thoughts. The voice came out small, uncertain, and so achingly familiar that I forced my head to turn toward it.Hazel.She was sitting right next to me, her face pale, and her eyes swollen, like she hadn’t slept in days. For a which second, I actually felt bad because everything inside me screamed that it was the cause of her disheveled look. It took a while, but I watched how fast ger hand flew to her m
Kiara’s POV The castle had never been this quiet.Every hallway echoed with the sound of my own heartbeat, steady at first, then too fast, then too loud. I shouldn’t have come here. Hell, I shouldn't have even allowed Hazel and Davis talk me into going into the archives in the first place. I'd never been a fan of using denial to talk myself out of stuff, but right now, I didn't mind. If I hadn't found out that my suspicions were true, and that there was an entirely bigger play to all of this, then maybe, just making I would still have my sanity back. Shit. I tried to push it out of my mind, but the more I tried, the harder it got. Hazel and Davis told me to wait, but waiting felt like drowning. I liked to think Hazel knew me too well because even after they'd both escorted me back to my room, she refused to leave. She told me straight up to my face that she didn't trust me to not do something stupid, like going to confront Darius right away. I couldn't even be mad about it, be
Kiara’s POV I told myself that the hardest part of what we'd all agreed to do was done, but if I had known any better, I honestly wouldn't have jumped into any conclusions. We'd all agreed to finding out what we could, and I couldn't have felt any better. Hell, I even went to bed feeling very hopeful, just for whatever piece of hope I had last night to be snatched away from me the minute I woke up. I didn't want to, but the incessant knock on my door was the last straw it took for me to finally peel myself from the bed. I felt groggy and what not, but still, it didn't stop me from heading towards the door. “Good morning.” A maid waiting at my door first thing in the morning wasn't what I was expecting. “I have news from Luna Tamia.”“Oh.” I hated how easy it was for Tamia's name to unsettle me. “what news?”“She wants you to join her for breakfast.” The maid let out slowly. “Alongside a couple other women. It's strictly by invitation and she wants you to join her.”“Oh.” I mutt
Kiara’s POV I wasn’t sure how long I’d been sitting there after the pain in my veins passed. I wanted to tell myself that I had imagined it, but no matter how hard I muttered it deep inside me, it could be change the truth. Something was inside me, and it felt alive. “Get a grip on yourself, Kiara.” I muttered the words to myself over and over again. “Get it together.” I probably spent the next thirty minutes chanting the words to myself, but after what seemed like forever, I decided to go back to my room. Or what was left of it anyway. I arrived in no time, and I fought hard to ignore the gloomy feeling that seemed to have spread everywhere. Without thinking, I sank to the ground, pressing back into one of the nearest walls. The cold stone floor pressed into my skin, the silence a little too loud, and the only thing louder than the wind howling outside was the pounding of my thoughts.When the door opened again, I thought she’d come back. My body went rigid, ready for anoth
Kiara's POV The air outside the cell should’ve felt lighter, a little bit cleaner, and dare I say free, but it didn’t. Not one bit. The atmosphere around me was thick with a kind of tension that even the sharpest knife couldn't cut through in one clean slice. With each breath I took, it felt like I was pushing my respiratory system, even though I knew I wasn't going to last long. The air clung to my lungs like fog. It was thick, stale, and heavy with the same dread that had lived with me inside those walls. Every step I took down the dim corridor echoed too loudly, as if the walls themselves were listening.Freedom wasn’t supposed to sound like this, but it did and I had no idea how I felt about it all. I should’ve known Tamia’s mercy wasn’t real mercy. No one like her did anything without a reason, especially not to people like me. Tamia hated me, and even though I hadn't had a one on one with her, I liked to think of was pretty obvious. Two guards had escorted me to
Kiara’s POV The air in the cell was thick. It was stale, damp, and heavy enough to sit on my skin like a second layer. I’d lost track of how many hours had passed since they threw me back in here. The torches along the corridor had burned low, their light trembling against the rough stone walls like they were afraid to exist.Maybe it was stupid of me, but I didn't think I'd be coming back in here anytime soon. Hell, I wasn't sure which was worse. On the one hand, I had no idea what had been waiting for me outside when the guards had dragged me out a couple of hours ago. I was expecting a trial, but was I satisfied with how it had turned out, I honestly had no idea.A small part of me had thought Darius was going to listen to me. He hadn't listened to me in the hall where Tamia had been coughing out blood, but I thought he was at least going to hear me out. Not only did he not do that, he handed over the reigns of my punishment to none other than the woman I'd almost killed, and







