Chapter 12

Kieran’s POV

I watched in silence as the lashes landed on her back. Each sound of the whip echoed in the courtyard, cutting through her once-beautiful skin. Blood trickled down her pale skin, staining the ground under her.

She didn’t beg. Not like I expected her to.

She screamed, yes and cried out in agony, but she didn’t beg for mercy.

I should have felt satisfied. I should have felt nothing. But all I saw was fire.

Not the fire of today,the fire of the past.

The fire that swallowed my home. The smoke that choked the air as my father’s dying roars shook the sky. The scent of burning flesh. The annoying manic laughter of Darius as he stood over my parents’ bodies, his blade dripping with their blood.

And Lily—