Seraphine’s Pov
I did not sleep.
How could I, with death rotting only a few steps away from me?
All night my eyes stayed open, burning and dry, fixed on the rough wall in front of me. I could not turn back, could not bring myself to look at the corpse in the shadows. The stench was faint but present, that sickening sour note that clung to the back of my throat. My stomach churned. Each time the wind outside groaned against the wood, I flinched, terrified that the body would move.
I curled into myself, the thin cloth clutched around my bare skin, and I whispered a thousand prayers to a goddess who had already abandoned me. My body screamed for rest, but my mind wouldn’t allow it. Not with him there. Not with that reminder of what awaited me if I failed.
I don’t know when dawn came. It
