Dark Awakening

TALIA POV

Lady Callista’s manicured hands clamped around my throat like a vice.

Air vanished from my lungs in an instant. Her silver eyes were empty of all humanity, gleaming with the calculated cruelty of an executioner who had slaughtered dozens before me. She pinned me down, her perfume smelling of sweet lavender and rot.

"You were supposed to die quietly in your sleep, little girl. The oth