The darkness of the basement was absolute, a heavy velvet shroud that sought to smother the very memory of the sun. I lay on the freezing stone floor, my breath hitching as the adrenaline from the fight on the field finally ebbed away, leaving behind the sharp, throbbing protest of my bruised ribs. Every inhale felt like a serrated blade scraping against my lungs.
I should have felt small. I should have felt like the "feral" disgrace my father had labeled me before locking me away.
Instead, I felt a low, resonant hum vibrating in the floor—or perhaps it was vibrating in me.
“One month,” I whispered, the words puffing out in a pale cloud of mist in the chill air. One month until the Blood Moon. One month until they led me to the cliff to jump into the Abyss, hoping my death would s
