Chapter 123

Danielle’s POV

THE NEXT MORNING

I wake up to some kind of cold, the hard marble floor against my cheek. Stiffness in my limbs. A dull ache behind my eyes that throbs with every breath I take.

For a moment, I don’t remember where I am or why my chest feels so tight, like something heavy is pressing down on it.

Then in seconds it all rushes back. The hallway. Rhett’s grip on my arm. Elara’s voice sliced through the tension like a knife. The way Rhett had gone quiet when she appeared.

My throat tightens in seconds.

I push myself up slowly, wincing as my muscles protest. I must have slept on the floor all night. The thin rug beneath me is rumpled, my hair tangled, my dress wrinkled and twisted around my legs.

I don’t even remember lying down. I only remember crying.

My eyes burn as I blink, swollen and sore, the kind of ache that comes from tears that never really stopped. My body feels weak and heavy as if the antidote they’d given me days