Ava's POV
The bruises from past stillings seared on my wrists as the cold metal of the shackles burnt. Though I battled it, I could feel tiredness dragging down on me. Eli was still asleep as they hauled him off. For him, for us, I had to keep it together.
It was not intended to be this way. The treachery of Adrian ached more than I could have conveyed in words. I had come to trust him. Each of us had trusted him. Now, though, that trust was destroyed beyond repair and we were trapped in a cell devoid of hope and strategy—yet something inside me resisted to accept that. I could not let it finish this way.
The quiet of the cell was stifling, broken only by the faint sound of footfall emanating from some down the way. The door creaked open, and my heart surged as a shadowy figure entered.
