The fire in me hasn’t gone out since Eden’s confession. It burns in my chest, crawls under my skin, coils in my fists every time I picture her locked underground like an animal. Sixteen years. Sixteen years stolen, beaten into obedience, leashed and collared like she was nothing more than some bastard’s pet.
And then I think of what I did to her.
The bars I put around her when I should have known better. The walls I built in the name of safety that looked far too much like a prison. She’d already lived a lifetime in chains, and I added another link.
I can still see her eyes when she looked at me—torn between fear, fury, and something else she doesn’t want to admit. That spark that flares every time she spits venom at me. She thinks I don’t notice. She thinks I’m blind to the way her pul
