It had been twenty-four hours.
Twenty-four hours of shivering in the freezing dungeon, my fingers felt numb and my heart felt hollow, as if it had been carved out and its essence completely removed.
I felt so incredibly stupid. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Caden’s face from that night—the way he had looked at me as if I were the only thing keeping him grounded.
And I had been foolish enough to believe him.
I had let myself think that he saw me, Rhea, and not just his enemy’s daughter.
“He used you,” — a voice hissed in my head, over and over. “He took what he wanted to drown out his own guilt, and then he tossed you to his uncle like trash.”
The betrayal was horrible, it was consuming, and it was all I could think about. My chest ached with a dull, throbbing pain that had
