Each step Chavo takes sends tremors rippling through me until he towers overhead, lips twisted into a disdainful sneer.
"Look at you now, broken beast," he hisses with undisguised relish. "Where is that feral defiance you clung to for so long? That delusional belief that you could somehow overcome your rightful place?"
I can only hang limply, shoulders shaking with ragged, gulping breaths as despair washes over me in cloying waves. Ava's final terrified screams seem to echo endlessly in the sulfurous air, taunting me with my ultimate failure to protect her from a fate worse than death itself.
Chavo allows a pregnant pause to stretch out, clearly savoring my wretched capitulation. When he continues, his nasal tones have taken on an almost paternal lilt of exaggerated indulgence.
"You p
