Vanessa POV

The clang of the cell door echoed like a death knell. Iron scraped against stone, the sound rattling through my bones as the guards shoved me forward. My knees hit the damp ground, pain spiking through my legs, but I barely felt it. All I felt was the fire eating through my chest, the fury and humiliation twisting like barbed wire inside me.

Kael’s hands had been around my throat not long ago. His fury still lingered, seared into the tender flesh of my neck, the ghost of his grip branding me with a reminder: I was nothing. Disposable.

The guards didn’t look at me as they locked...