Chapter 45 Elaina
ELAINA
The East Tower is colder even than Xaren’s dungeon cell.
The stone walls sweat with moisture, slick beneath my fingers. The air smells of damp rot and old blood, and the only light comes from a single barred window near the ceiling—too small to crawl through and far too high to reach.
The guards shove me inside without ceremony. The door slams shut behind me with the finality of a tomb closing in the dead.
I’ve gone from being a Princess in the palace to a prisoner in the dark.
My knees hit the cold stone floor, bruising them, but I don’t even care. I curl in on myself and finally—finally—I allow the tears to fall.
For Xaren…for the old King, who never did me any harm…for myself. Goddess help me. I don’t know how I’m going to survive this.
But somewhere beneath the fear and the despair, a seed of fury takes root.
I will not let him win. I will find a way out. I will tell the truth at that sham of a trial, I swear to myself. And even if no one believes me, I will plant a seed of doubt in the minds of the Court.
I will burn Dorian’s lies to the ground.