Chapter 42 Bronwen
Bronwen
Curled in the farthest corner of the cell, my back pressed to the cold stone wall.
The only light came from a single slit in the ceiling high above, casting pale gray shadows that never changed.
I’d lost track of how many days had passed since I’d reached out to Adar.
Since I’d pulled on that frayed, forgotten thread in my mind and found him.
I didn’t even know how I had done it. I just knew that I had screamed inside my head so loudly that somehow, he’d heard me. Since then, he had spoken to me now and then. Small reassurances. A whisper in the dark when I needed it most. I’m coming.
I held on to those words like lifelines, replaying them when the silence stretched too long, when the pain threatened to consume me. He said he was working on getting magic. That he couldn’t get to me yet, not without it.
I understood. But gods, it was getting harder to wait.
Because it wasn’t just fear that kept me curled up in this place. It was grief—deep and hollow and unrelenting.
My baby was gone.
I didn’t know what Carrow had done with her. Had he killed her? Hidden her away? Was she crying somewhere, scared and alone? Or worse—was she with him?
That loss clawed at me more viciously than the hunger or the cold or the silence ever could.
It was the kind of pain that rooted itself in my bones, that stole the breath from my lungs when I tried to sleep.
Some nights, I felt the flutter of phantom kicks low in my belly, cruel echoes of a life I never got to hold.
I would jolt awake clutching at myself, desperate to find her still there, only to be met with hollow silence and emptiness.
Every time footsteps echoed outside the door, I flinched. Every time the lock scraped open and a tray was shoved inside, I held my breath.
Not yet, I told myself. But soon.
I refused to let myself think of anything else.
Just soon.
Carrow hadn’t come to me yet. That was the one grace the gods seemed to have gifted me with.
Until I felt the air shift.
There was no sound. No footsteps. Just a rush of pressure, like the room exhaled all at once. I shielded my eyes as a flicker of light sparked, blinding in the gloom. Spots burst behind my lids as I squinted into the sudden glow, heart thundering.
When my eyes adjusted, I saw him standing there, a small ball of fire glowing in his hand, casting shifting shadows across the stone walls and chasing the darkness back. The light flickered against the hollows of his face as my heart stuttered.
Adar.
He crouched before me, and I barely recognized him.
His face was thinner, cheekbones sharp where they hadn’t been before.
Shadows bruised the skin beneath his eyes, and a rough scruff covered his jaw as if he hadn’t had the time or will to shave.
He looked unkempt, worn down, as if every day I’d been locked away had carved itself into him too.
His eyes were wide with panic and relief all at once.
He reached for me gently, arms wrapping around my small, curled frame like I was something breakable.
“B,” he breathed, tucking his chin into the top of my head. “Gods, I found you.”
I wanted to cry. I wanted to fall apart in his arms, but I couldn’t. I had no tears left. Only the silence and the weight of everything I had lost. I clung to him anyway.
“I didn’t know if you’d really come,” I whispered.
He pulled back enough to look at me. “You found me first, remember? You never stopped fighting. I just had to catch up.”
His hands trembled as they touched my arms, as if he didn’t believe I was real.
“You look like hell,” he said softly.
“Thanks,” I rasped. “Did you bring anything for that?”
His gaze dropped to my hands, to the ugly metal gloves still fused to my skin. He reached out slowly, fingers brushing the edge of one as if testing its resistance. Then he tugged, gentle but firm.
“Don’t,” I said. “It’s no use. My skin’s probably grown around them by now. It would take a lot of magic to get them off without tearing my hands apart in the process.”
He froze, eyes meeting mine. The guilt in them made my chest ache. “I didn’t know they hurt like that.”
“They don’t. Not anymore,” I lied. “Or maybe I’ve just stopped noticing. That’s the same thing, right?”
He smiled for a second. Just a second. “We’re going to get far away from here. But first—B, I need you to hold on. I only have enough magic to take us part of the way. Once we’re clear, I’ll get more. I promise.”
“No.”
He froze. “What do you mean no? We have to get out of here before anyone finds out.”
The easiest way out would be to go with Adar now and run. But I’d let my heart overpower my head for too long. And it had done nothing for me.
I needed to finish what I was born to do. Put an end to the person who had taken everything from me.
“Bring me a vampire.”