~ Isabella’s POV

When I woke up, my head felt heavy, and my vision was blurry. Blinking a few times, I tried to get my bearings, the dim light in the room casting long shadows on the walls. As the fog in my mind cleared, I recognized the surroundings—and my heart stopped.

I was back in my old room. Not the cozy space Lucian and I shared in the palace, but the small, suffocating room in my adoptive parents’ house. The faded wallpaper, the rickety desk in the corner, the creaky wooden ...