Chapter 198

The Prey

I was awake, though I didn’t know when I woke up—or if I ever truly slept at all. Tied up in the back seat of this rusted, suffocating car. The leather was cold and biting against my skin, and the ropes were cutting into my wrists, biting into my flesh with every shudder of my body. I felt numb. Numb to the world, numb to myself, and numb to the horror that had become my reality.

I couldn’t remember when everything began to fracture inside me. One moment, I was someone who believed in love, in family; the next, I was trapped in a nightmare where every whispered word and every coarse touch shredded what little remained of my sanity. My mind spun in a vortex of betrayal and terror, and I loathed myself for the weakness I felt—a paralyzing, self-hating numbness that I couldn’t seem to shake off.

Outside, through the thin barrier of the car’s window, I heard them. Their voices slice through the silence like razors. My father and Lucius. I stra