MINA
I woke up slowly, like my body was made of torn cloth soaked in pain. Every inhale burned. Every exhale scraped. For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was. All I knew was that my cheek was pressed against something cold and hard, and that my ribs throbbed with every breath.
Then it hit me how I got here.
My eyes snapped open.
I wasn’t dead.
Why?
I groaned as I pushed myself upright. My head pounded in dull, nauseating waves that made me swallow back bile. The world around me was pitch black, silent except for the faint ringing in my ears and my own uneven breaths.
Rowena had hit me before—many, many times. Ever since I was little, she punished me whenever I brought home fewer rabbits or when I returned too early and wasted “daylight.” She had never raised a hand when Garri
