Chapter 73

Lucien

Pain has become a companion. Not a visitor. My pain is a permanent resident.

I hang suspended by chains of obsidian. Wings bleeding. Arms stretched above me. Ankles bound below. Blood trickles down from the fresh wounds in my palms, where Zyra has nailed me to the wall of her private chamber.

The worst part isn’t the searing pain. Not the spikes through my neck. Not the bone-deep ache in my