Rebecca’s POV
The guards didn’t care that I was stumbling.
They just dragged me, my feet scraping helplessly against the hard floor while the heavy lace of my wedding dress ripped with every step.
I didn’t care about the dress.
I didn’t care about the warm, sticky blood dripping from my forehead down to my neck.
All I could think about was where we were going.
The dungeon.
We were heading straight into the belly of the mansion.
With every step we walked down, the air got colder.
The torchlight grew weaker and weaker, throwing long, eerie shadows against the damp walls.
“Please,” I begged, my voice cracking and raw from screaming Enzo’s name.
“Please, just lock me in a room.
A closet.
Anywhere else.
I can’t go down there.
You don’t understand—I can’t breathe!”
The guards didn’t say a word.
Their iron grips just tightened around my arms.
They didn’t care.
To them, I was just a traitor who had tried to kill her own sister.
At the bottom of the stairs, the air smelled of rust and stagnant water.
They pulled me down a narrow hallway and stopped right in front of a rusted iron door.
When the guard unlocked it, the hinges made a loud, screeching noise.
It wasn’t even a real cell.
It was a box.
A tiny, windowless stone room that couldn’t even fit two people standing up.
The walls looked as though they were already leaning inward, just waiting to crush me.
“No, no, no!” Panic hit me chest-first, and I used every bit of strength I had to pull backward.
“Don’t do this!
I’ll die in here!
Enzo!”
With a rough shove, they threw me inside.
I hit the hard, wet floor, and the breath was knocked right out of my lungs.
Before I could even get to my knees, the heavy iron door slammed shut.
BANG.
The sound rattled inside the tiny space, vibrating right through my skull.
Then came the terrifying click of the key turning in the lock.
“Wait!
Please!” I screamed, throwing myself against the iron door.
I beat my fists against the cold metal, not even caring about the sharp pain in my knuckles.
“Don’t leave me here!
Open the door!
Please!”
The heavy footsteps of the guards echoed down the hallway, fading away until there was nothing left.
Nothing but the silence.
And the dark.
It was pitch black.
A darkness so thick and heavy it felt as though it were pressing against my eyes.
I couldn’t see my hands.
I couldn’t see the walls.
I couldn’t see anything.
The walls are moving, a terrified voice whispered in my head.
They’re closing in on you.
My chest tightened painfully, like a heavy weight had just dropped onto my lungs.
I sucked in a breath, but it felt as if there were no air left in the room.
“Breathe, Rebecca.
You need to breathe,” Olivia, my wolf, whimpered inside me.
She was pacing around frantically, her fur standing on end from fear.
She tried to calm me down, but the toxin mixed into the dungeon walls was already working.
It felt like a heavy, toxic blanket, weakening her and cutting off my connection to her.
I couldn’t stand on my feet anymore.
My legs turned to jelly, and I slid down the rough stone door, collapsing onto the freezing floor.
My whole body started shaking violently.
In.
Out.
Just breathe.
But my lungs wouldn’t work.
My breaths became shallow and way too fast—just hollow gasps that made my head spin.
The blood from the cut on my forehead mixed with the cold sweat on my face, stinging my eyes.
I clutched my throat, desperate to get air, but the invisible walls kept pressing closer, tighter, trapping me in a stone coffin.
Enzo…
where are you?
Please help me!
I tried to mind-link him.
But the memory of his cold, blank eyes flashed in my mind, hitting me with a wave of pain so severe it made me sick to my stomach.
He knew.
He knew about the storage room when I was eight years old.
He knew how the dark broke me.
And he still sent me here.
The lack of air made my vision blurry, even in the dark.
Dark spots started dancing across my eyes.
“Rebecca, stay with me!” Olivia’s voice sounded far away now, as if she were shouting from underwater.
“Don’t close your eyes!”
I couldn’t help it.
The room was spinning.
The air was gone.
My head rolled back against the damp stone wall.
The tight pressure in my chest suddenly turned into a heavy, numb emptiness.
The terror started to fade into a cold sensation as I blacked out.
I drifted out.
I don’t know how much time passed.
A sudden, sharp gasp tore from my throat as my eyes flew open.
I was shivering uncontrollably, my face pressed against the dirty floor.
For a second, I forgot where I was.
Then, the total darkness swallowed me all over again.
“Help…” I choked out, but it was just a raspy whisper.
My throat was completely dry, burning with every shallow breath I tried to take.
I tried to crawl, to find a corner, but my arms and legs felt heavy.
The toxin in the walls was draining everything I had left, leaving me completely weak and tired to my bones.
I couldn’t even feel Olivia anymore.
I was entirely alone.
The darkness seemed to press down on my chest until my ribs hurt.
My heart started racing again, and a fresh wave of panic made my head spin violently.
I’m going to die here, I realized, a warm tear cutting through the dried blood on my cheek.
I’m going to die in here, and Enzo is never going to know the truth.
The air ran out completely.
My eyelids felt too heavy to keep open.
As the blackness of the room mixed with the blackness of my own mind, I let my eyes close again, finally accepting my fate.
But suddenly… I heard a sound.
Click.
The lock turned.
The heavy iron door slowly began to groan open, scraping against the stone floor.
Footsteps.
Someone was coming.
I desperately tried to keep my eyes open, to look up and see who it was, but my body had nothing left.
The shadows blurred together, and before I could see the face of the person stepping into my cell, I drifted completely into unconsciousness.