"I was held captive for two hundred fifty years," he continued. "Chained to the same wall I stared at for all that time. I memorized that wall, the zigzag of cracks, how the cold stone numbed my cheek so much when I passed out against it that I could hardly move my face to speak."

My throat pulled tight, and I closed my eyes against the images his memories provoked. His back would've been left exposed to whatever horror had chained him up in the first place.

"Who?" I ...