I was jerked from fitful sleep by the metallic scrape of my cell door opening. Elder Stone stood framed in the doorway, two guards flanking her like obedient dogs. The burgundy of her suit looked almost black in the dim light, like dried blood. My head still pounded from the wolfsbane, and my limbs felt heavy as waterlogged wood. In the back of my mind, Nyx whimpered, her presence faint as a dying ember. “Good morning, my dear,” Elder Stone says, her voice carrying that same false warmth that makes my skin crawl. “Today’s the day we rid you of that pesky bond.” My stomach drops, ice flooding my veins. I scramble backward until my spine hits the concrete wall, chains rattling between my raw wrists. “No,” I manage, my voice cracking from disuse and thirst. “You can’t do this.” ‘Fight,’ Nyx whispers weakly in my mind. ‘Must fight.’ Elder Stone smiles, the expression never reaching her cold amber eyes. “I assure you, we can. And we will.
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