Chapter 43

Sloane

I had stopped trying to count the hours.

Or days.

There was no window in the cell. No sunrise. No sunset. Just the same weak light beneath the door and the sound of footsteps passing outside when someone remembered I existed.

My body hurt everywhere. My wrists were raw beneath the silver cuffs. One side of my ribs throbbed every time I breathed too deeply. My neck still burned where his claws had scratched me.

Cressida had treated that. Of course she had. Apparently they wanted me damaged, not dead. At least not yet.

I lay curled on my side on the narrow cot, staring at the wall. Rhea barely moved inside me. The silver kept her distant. But not completely gone.

Sometimes I felt her pacing somewhere far beneath my skin. Sometimes I felt nothing. And sometimes—

Him.

A presence I hated knowing was there.

The silver dulled it, but it didn’t erase it.

My mate.

I shut my eyes. I refused to think about th