Chapter 44. Back

It felt like I was drowning.

I couldn’t tell if this was a dream or not—each breath I took was thick and wrong, like breathing through water. My body ached in places I didn’t even know could feel pain. But something was… off.

The air was still. Clean.

Too clean.

Not the suffocating stench of damp stone and blood I’d grown used to.

There were no chains. No darkness. Just warmth.

And something steady.

No—someone.

A heartbeat, strong and calm beneath the storm of my broken body.

The ache returned slowly, like a shadow remembering where it lives. My back throbbed. My wrists burned. My limbs felt like they were carved from stone. But I could breathe. Freely.

That alone made my eyes flutter open.

I tried to move, and pain exploded through my entire body. A hiss escaped my lips as I clenched my jaw, refusing to cry out.

Blinking against the soft glow, I turned my head—slowly.

This wasn