I blinked against the blinding light streaming through the windows, my head throbbing like it had been split open. I raised a trembling hand to my temple, wincing as the pain flared sharply. The room around me was familiar. It was my own chamber, with its high, arched ceilings and soft, velvet curtains—but something felt off.
I shut my eyes momentarily, trying to steady my racing thoughts. The fog of sleep still clung to me, but as the minutes passed, the memory of what had happened before came flooding back—Jerome, the king, the dark room. My breath hitched. Was it a dream? A nightmare?
But the ache in my head, the way my body felt sore, told me it wasn’t. No, it was real. Somehow, impossibly, I’d been pulled from that dark place and back here. I squeezed my eyes shut and breathed deepl
