Chapter 71 Where Is My Mate?

• The door to the deepest cell creaks open, and I step inside. The air here is damp and chokes like smoke, thick with the stench of rot and old blood. Torches flicker on the jagged stone walls, casting dancing shadows that twist like demons. Iron chains hang from the ceiling, some stained with dried blood, others still slick from recent use. Screams have been swallowed here, too many to count. No one comes out the same from this place—not even me.
• The coldness in my bones grows sharper as I walk toward the center of the cell. There he is—Khoas—tied to a rusted metal chair bolted into the ground. He’s no longer smirking. His head hangs low, his skin pale, sweat clinging to him like dew. He’s shaking. The effects of the broken mate bond are finally catching up with him, gnawing into his mind like worms in a carcass. Good.
• I stop in front of him and tilt my head, a slow smile crawling onto my face.