Chapter 129:

Chains and Blood

Elira

I opened my eyes slowly, painfully. My head was throbbing; each beat of my heart felt like a hammer striking my skull from the inside. The air was heavy, smelling sharply of iron and cold, damp stone. I blinked a few times, waiting for my vision to clear before the grim realization set in: I was back on the same hard bed, in the same dark room. The same old prison.

The events of last night crashed through my mind like a brutal storm—the razor-sharp claws, ...