Esther’s POV
The first thing I felt was pain. A dull, heavy ache radiated through my bones, as though I had been struck by the mountain itself. My eyes fluttered open, the dim glow of torchlight blurring into shapes I couldn’t place. The air smelled faintly of herbs and pine resin, a strange mixture that was both soothing and foreign.
I was not in the dungeon. Not in the cold stone halls of Nicholas’s palace.
Where was I?
I tried to sit up, but a sharp protest tore through my ribs, and I sank back against the furs beneath me. That was when I heard a familiar voice.
“You’re awake.”
My head turned, sluggish and heavy, and there he was. Kevin. His tall frame leaned casually against the doorway, though his eyes were sharper than ever, studying me with quiet intensity.
“You rolled down a
