EDRICK’S POV
The banging dragged me out of sleep like a hammer to the skull.
For a moment, I couldn’t tell if the sound was real or just my head splitting open from whatever cheap alcohol I’d drowned myself in the night before. My temples throbbed. My mouth tasted bitter. My chest felt heavy, like I’d slept with a stone on it.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I groaned and forced my eyes open.
The ceiling above me was wrong.
Too low. Too plain. No chandelier. No familiar lines. No scent of the Vale mansion. My heart skipped as awareness crept in, slow and cruel.
This wasn’t my room.
The banging continued, louder now, impatient, violent.
I turned my head, and froze.
She was standing a few feet away from the bed, wrapped in a thin robe, her hair loose and disheveled, her face pale with panic. For
