The door opened with a hiss like a serpent exhaling.For so long, the chamber had been my coffin, my endless night. The scrape of hinges, the slice of light, too bright, too holy for my ruined eyes. It felt unreal. My arms curled around myself as if I might burn from the sun itself.Hands seized me, rough and unyielding. They dragged me out across the threshold, my nails scraping stone, leaving nothing but whispers of blood in their wake. My lungs sucked in air that wasn’t the stale rot of my cell. This air was perfumed—faintly sweet, laced with smoke and something darker, headier.When I finally lifted my head, I saw her.Madam Celeste.She was not like the men who had kept me in shadows. She was the shadow. Tall, draped in silks that glimmered like spilled wine, her figure carved into sharp elegance. Her hair cascaded in black waves threaded with silver, a crown of serpents without their hiss. Her eyes, cold and hard, cruelly alive, cut through me until I wanted to bow, to worship,
Magbasa pa
Mag-log in
