Chapter 64
Vanya
The moment the satchel opened, the light stabbed into my eyes like a blade. I winced, blinking rapidly, my lashes sticky from dried tears. The air was heavy, sweet with wine and dust, but sterile in a way that told me this wasn’t some dungeon—it was worse.
A room.
A clean, furnished room.
Soft sheets beneath me. A wooden bed. Curtains drawn across shuttered windows. A fireplace crackling quietly in the corner. And a man standing at the foot of the bed, cradling a glass of red wine like he was about to deliver a toast.
Danish.
My cries had long gone hoarse. My body ached from being curled up for so long. My wrists throbbed from the tightness of the ropes, but I kept my back straight, my chin up, even as the pressure behind my swollen eyes begged me to break.
But I w
