Layla’s POV
The silence didn’t last.
It never did in places like this.
I felt it even before I heard it, the sudden shift in atmosphere, the way the shadows along the stone walls seemed to tighten.
They seemed to be bracing themselves. My wrists still burned where the silver restraints held me, but the pain had dulled into something distant, secondary.
Fear has a way of prioritizing itself.
I stared at the torch across the chamber which flared brighter as I tried to memorize the order of things. The entirety of scenery that happened outside the cell room.
And, just in case I needed to escape. I needed to find a way out of here. But I was not sure how.
Suddenly I heard the sound of footsteps.
Slow, unhurried, and deliberate. Stopping everything I was doing, I became still going s
