Nyra stared at the face in front of her, barely able to believe it was real.
For a moment, everything else—the cold stone cell, the fortress walls, even the sting in her wrists from the chains—vanished. Nothing mattered but the man standing there.
“No…” The word slipped out in a hoarse whisper.
His smile twisted, sharp and delighted by her pain. This wasn’t a warm reunion; this was a moment he’d clearly been waiting for.
“That’s hardly the welcome I expected.”
Nyra’s heart crashed against her ribs. Memories of Ashford welled up: dusty roads, crowded pack houses, and the unyielding rules that said exactly how much you were worth before you even started living. For years, she’d believed she would never matter there—except maybe to a handful of people who had bothered to be kind.
Darius
