Same as the sound of the cell door closing.
The first thing Seraphina saw was that.
Not the dark.
Not the cold stone under her feet.
Not the heavy chains on her wrists.
The noise.
One last merciless echo.
Clang. clang.
The same sound she had heard before she died.
For a brief moment...
She no longer stood in the prison under the manor.
She was back at the scene of execution.
It rained from a black sky.
The crowd howled.
The chains bit into her flesh.
And Kael was standing among them.
Observing.
Seraphina woke up.
The memory was gone.
But the pain stayed.
She looked down at the iron on her wrists.
Ancient.
Heavy.
Written in ancient runes.
The guards that brought her here were careful.
Too much care.
They hadn’t treated her like a regular prisoner.
They'd treated h
