Chapter 39

It wasn't until then that I finally woke up and realized I was lying in a small, dark cell. Heavy air hung low with the smell of damp rock, accompanied by a hint of something else: a scent both far too familiar, yet somehow too out of place to be captured by my memory. My body was sore all over from the traumatic experience of what Ryder had attempted with that ritual. Despite the pain, I made myself take in the scene around me.

That's when I saw him—the mysterious ...