Chapter 4

Selena’s POV

I heard my bones crack

That was what forced me awake

The brutal realization that you had no escape

Not even in my dreams

I forced my eyes open to the pain that came from the cold floor I was lying on.

The worst part wasn’t the cold floor.

Neither was it the fact that my body felt like it had been run over by a truck

It wasn’t the fact that I couldn’t stop my mind frkm thinking back to my sister.

It was the silence.

It felt different

Too different.

It was the kind that crawls into your ears.

My bones felt sticky as though it had settled in there.

Stuck to them like rot. The sound of my heartbeat drummed repeatedly in my ears, I was worried that the guards could hear it outside the dungeon door.

My bones were knocked in place, and I could get them crack with every move I made.

The desert wasn’t enough to describe how dry my tongue was, my limbs were sore and the headache I felt was custom made…dull and slow at the back of my head.

i always had wild imagination, the kind that involved my sister and I living out our dream lives eventually.

Not this

Not dying in a glorified dungeon, no source of light

There wasn’t even the tiniest source of light here

I felt the urge to punch the walls. To curse Zevran right here in this rat hole.

The cold air forces itself into my nostrils, not like I could help it anyway.

For some reason, it felt heavy in my chest, like it did not want time to breathe. My arms were still wrapped tightly around my body, but I couldn’t seem to stop shaking. Every time I looked around, the walls seemed closer and tighter, like they were trying to crush me. There was barely any space to move, no room to walk, not even to stretch my legs.

I was trapped.

No voices, or footsteps, just the slow steady drip of water somewhere far away. The sound only managed to tighten my nerves even more.

“Damn it,” I cursed, even though my coice sounded like a whisper. It didn’t echo. The sound just died in the cold air.

I kicked the wall with my left foot. Hard. Pain shot up through my ankle and I cried out, falling back onto the hard ground. I grabbed at my leg, tears stinging my eyes—not just from the pain, but from everything. From the fear. The hopelessness. The anger burning in my chest with nowhere to go.

I was scared.

Everything happened before I could register it. Like a movie scene, the little girl, the man and the way he looked between the girl and I.

How surprised he was that she was talking. How he hadn’t believed me initially.

I didn’t know if anyone even remembered I was here. What if they never came back? What if they left me to rot in this dark hole? My heart pounded in my chest, faster and faster, and I couldn’t catch my breath. I felt like I was drowning in the air itself.

I crawled to the wall and leaned my head against it. It was freezing. It made my skin hurt. But I didn’t move. I didn’t know what else to do.

Tears spilled down my cheeks.

What if this was it?

What if I never saw sunlight again?

What if no one came?

Then I heard it.

My ears perked at the sound from a distance and I instinctively jerked up.

“Footsteps. Heavy. Purposeful.

My body stiffened against the far wall as the iron door creaked open and a rectangle of pale light spilled in.

I blinked.

Then instantly regretted it.

Him.I wanted to go home, to hug my sister, to start life afresh, maybe from two months earlier

“not to be stuck with some weird kid,”.I managed, even though my chest tightened because I had not meant it. She looked adorable, with her big round eyes.

No wonder she looked like him. That same thick dark hair. That guarded look. The sense she was always listening, always watching.

“She’s called Sisi,” he corrected . “She doesn’t speak. Not to anyone.”

I snorted softly. “Funny. She spoke to me.”

A beat passed.

“She called me her mother,” I added, just to see his face change.

It didn’t. Not much. But his jaw flexed slightly, and I knew the words rattled him.

“Why me?” I asked, my grip on the bars had tightened now, I was holding them as though they held a solution to call my nerves.

”you could just pick anyone from your kingdom and let me be,” or maybe she didn’t speak a word to the either? But I couldn’t add that part.

“She doesn’t trust anyone,” he said. “Until you.”

My laugh was sharp. “So I’m being promoted from accused thief to full-time nanny. Do I still get to keep the shackles?”

“I’m giving you a way out.”

“Oh, how generous. And what if I say no? You’ll toss me into a deeper dungeon?”

My insides froze when his eyes met mine. “You won’t.”

“Arrogant much?”

“Practical.”

“You don’t know me ,” I retorted“What makes you think your people will accept me around your heir?”

“No one comes here,” he replied. Simple. Final.

Gods.

Was that supposed to be reassuring?

“Let me get this straight,” I said, crossing my arms tightly. “You dragged me here, and now, because your daughter mumbles one word, I’m suddenly qualified to be her guardian?”

“She said more than one word.”

I stared.

That… wasn’t the point.

“Did you even ask her why?” I asked. “Why did she say that? Why did she pick me?”

“No.”

“Of course not,” I muttered,

My legs moved involuntarily, as I began pacing again. “Because feelings are terrifying, and silence is safer. You people only trust orders, don’t you?”He paused, staring intently at me.

“One more thing,” he said without batting an eyelid.

I waited.

“If you ever hurt her—intentionally or not—I will personally see to it that no one ever finds your body.”

My breath caught.

Not because of the words.

But because there was no malice in them. No rage.

Just quiet, terrifying certainty.

And somehow, that scared me more than any threat ever had.

Maybe fate was never going to stop playing games with me.