Xavier
I was the one who gave the order. I told the guard to lock her up, and I meant it. Zara deserved to be punished for her defiance, her silence. She had dared to test my patience, and no one—*no one*—did that without consequence.
Yet, as the hours dragged on, I couldn't shake the gnawing feeling at the back of my mind. The satisfaction I should've felt from seeing her dragged off to the dungeon never came. Instead, there was an unease, a restless buzz in my head that wouldn't go away.
I tried to push it aside, bury it with the weight of responsibility I had to carry. But it was no use. Her face kept flashing before my eyes—those eyes that had stared at me with no fear, no remorse. Zara hadn't been afraid of me. She had looked at me like I was the one in the wrong, like I should have been the one in chains.
