Chapter 5

KELLY

I didn’t think much about that, cutting my hands off.

What I was worried about at the moment wasn’t really about my leg but Kayden, who was still in my cell. I knew that would cause a lot of trouble.

I doubted Ezekiel knew that his brother was already out of the cell and seeing us together would confirm Eve’s lies against me.

“Hide!” I said with a low voice.

That was the only thing I could think of. I needed him to hide. Luckily, the room was dark enough for Ezekiel not to find Kayden if he hid properly.

And it seemed the moon goddess was with me. Ezekiel's guards were taking time to get him his knife, giving Kayden enough time to scamper around the musty cell to find the best place to hide.

“I told you, moron, to give me my knife!” Ezekiel shrieked outside the door.

I looked at Kayden, who was finding it hard to find a proper place to hide.

“This is it, Alpha.” Ezekiel’s guards passed him his knife, and I shivered.

Ezekiel was really going to chop off my hand? My heart began to race, my breath catching in my throat just at the thought of it.

“Ezekiel..” I whimpered. I knew I had no one to save me.

Just as he was about to open the door, I heard the sound of fast footsteps echoing outside my cell again, and this time it looked like someone was running to Ezekiel’s side.

“Alpha,” one of the guards called, and it looked like he was about to deliver an important message to him.

“What do you want? You are disturbing me.” Ezekiel said sternly, and I could hear the fear that followed the guard's voice.

“I’m sorry for interrupting Alpha, but there is an emergency, the Elders of the Council are waiting for you at the grand hall.” I heard his personal guard's voice.

“Why does it have to be now?” Ezekiel groaned, and I could hear him curse underneath.

“Don’t think you are going to escape this, Kelly, I’m coming back to chop your leg as your punishment. Wait for me!”

With that, I heard his retreating footsteps as he walked away from my cell.

I immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

looked back at Kayden, who seemed relieved as well.

“He’s gone,” I whispered, and Kayden nodded.

His face looked troubled, the shadows in the room carving worry lines across his features.

“I have to go,” he murmured. “If they catch me here… you know what will happen.”

My chest tightened. “Kayden—”

He turned slightly, his eyes meeting mine again. For a second, the years fell away, and he wasn’t the boy I once knew or the man they locked away.

He was something else. Something I couldn’t place.

“Do you have something to say?” he asked quietly.

I swallowed.

“I’m just… glad you’re alive.”

His lips twitched, almost a smile but not quite. “Alive, yes. But not free. Not yet.”

That clipped something inside me. This wasn’t a reunion — it was a warning.

“I’ll come back when I can,” he added, lowering his voice. “Just… stay alive until then.”

He didn’t say he’d save me tonight.

He didn’t act like a hero.

He just slipped toward the door like a ghost trying not to exist.

“Kayden,” I whispered again.

He didn’t stop this time.

He couldn’t.

He simply pressed his palm once against the rusted metal, a silent promise without words, and vanished through the crack in the door.

And then — nothing. There was no warmth at all. No hope either.

Just the dripping from the ceiling, slow and annoying, like it was doing it on purpose.

I pulled my knees up and hugged them tight. I couldn't even remember the last time I saw sunlight.

My heart was beating so hard it actually hurt, and I kept thinking maybe the walls could hear it. Kayden was gone now. He left so fast I barely even saw him move. And then I was just… sitting there alone again.

The dungeon felt colder right away. Almost like it knew I got a little too hopeful and wanted to shut that down.

I heard footsteps. Soft ones, kind of sneaky. It made my stomach twist up really tight. I couldn’t tell if they were coming for me or maybe searching for Kayden.

A rat ran past my foot so fast that I almost had a panic attack.

Everywhere went silent again.

My brain wouldn’t stop thinking about Kayden. About the way he looked at me and then disappeared.

He didn’t save me yet. Not really. He just left me with a tiny little hope, so small it felt stupid to hold onto it.

I shut my eyes for just a moment… and that was all it took for my mind to slip back into the past I had tried so hard to forget.