Chapter 73 The Lesson

• The dark tastes stale — old oil, rotten wood, a soft drip somewhere behind her head that echoes every heartbeat she can’t swallow down.
• Ellerei drags her eyes open slow — lashes clumped, cheek pressed to cold concrete where the skin under her jaw stings raw from the grip that shoved her here.
• She shifts — only to feel the bite first: rough rope twisted tight around her wrists, ankles crossed and tied just loose enough that every tug burns but won’t slip free.