Chapter 120

Valeria’s POV

As I waited for the kappas to return, memories surged up, sharp and painful, like thorns piercing my skin.

“Strip her and let them see what’s left of the Draganov bloodline,” Kaelen had sneered, his words laced with cruelty. I remembered standing there, stripped of dignity, pleading for death as if it were a mercy. They had denied me even that, treating me as less than human, as thou