Xavier’s POV

I had been held down for weeks now as days blur into each other.

The cold iron biting into my wrists, again and again.

Each morning, my food was all forms of torture by guards, and my water was tears.

Time stopped making sense the minute they locked me in that damn den.

I stopped screaming long ago.

Now I just listened.

To rats. To silence.

To my own mind unraveling.

Until I heard it.

The lock clicked, but this time it was different. It was liberating and beautiful.

The scent ...