You Brought It on Yourself

Nyles stared down at her, his jaw clenching. The absolute silence in the high-end boutique felt suffocating, punctuated only by the faint, muffled whispers of the wealthy onlookers gathering around them. Elara held her breath, her bruised cheek throbbing in harsh rhythm with her rapidly racing heart. For two agonizingly long years, she had survived the pitch-black hell of the Aurelian Institute on