Ophelia’s POV:
The sudden, biting cold on my feet snapped my mind into a state of jagged, unwanted alertness.
In the haze of a heat, I often drifted. My consciousness would retreat into a dark corner of my mind, leaving my body to act on primal, desperate impulses. It wasn't uncommon for me to "wake up" once or twice during the cycle, usually when I felt a sudden jolt of alarm or an unbearable spike of pain.
This time, it was the former. It was the cold air hitting the skin I always kept hidden, followed by a silence so heavy it felt like the walls were closing in. It was a sense of dread.
I lay bare beneath him and watched his expression contort. His gaze remained fixed on the soles of my feet.
There they were. The maps of my childhood. The jagged, circular remnants of a past I had t
