I lay in bed, my phone facedown on the nightstand.
The night wind slipped through the open window, brushing over my bare skin like a cold, uninvited kiss. Alexander's last gasps still seemed to echo in my ears, but as the room cooled, so did the memory of his voice and face fading into the shadows.
It was just me now.
For the first time since my rebirth, I was sleeping alone.
The ceiling above me felt endless, hollow just like me. My eyes refused to close; every time they did, a thousand scenarios churned in my head. But when I tried to grasp one, it dissolved into nothing.
Damian wasn't coming home tonight.
I tried again to surrender to the darkness, but the moment my lashes met, my eyes snapped open. The cold prison walls appeared in my mind, and then his face. The sneer of the jailer, ugly and vivid.
Hate slid through me like a blade, sharp enough to make me feel the pain all over again.
Damian. Ariella. And my father.
