Domitilla POV

I had begged Aronne to stop.

When he didn’t, I begged him to kill me.

But he only laughed a low, cruel sound pressed between his teeth as he fed from me. In the end, I surrendered to the encroaching dark, welcoming unconsciousness like a reward for surviving yet another night of agony. Awareness slipped away. Silence swallowed me.

Then faint sounds floated in from the void. I drifted toward them. Toward the flicker of pale light blooming in the distance.

Stone stairs ...