Verity's pov

A few days passed in silence.

The nurse came and went. The doctors came and checked my vitals. None of them said much to me. They treated me with gentle hands, but distant words. I was still the strange mute girl from the dungeons, and I could see it in their eyes—the uncertainty, the pity, the curiosity.

I didn’t mind the quiet. I’d lived in it all my life.

But the isolation still stung.

That night, I sat in bed with my knees tucked under the blanket, ...