Chapter 16

ZARA'S POV

At last, Kai had won his battle. I woke up to a smelling fresh linen foreign in my nostrils, with a throbbing head.

The previous day's events crashed over me, and I opened my eyes to the soft morning light that seeped through heavy drapes. Slowly, I rose into a sitting position, around me surveying the room clearly. My mind had been so weak with the word opulent when I took in a grand four-poster bed, antique furniture, and lush carpeting.

All that luxury in the world could not make this place look more less than a prison, a gilded cage meant to hold me.

I began kicking my legs across the bed and then down onto a cold floor below me, anchoring myself into reality. I needed to get out. Groggily, I looked around the room for some exit, anything. But there wasn't as all doors and windows closed tight at their handles while I pulled at them frantically.

The door into the hall was open a crack. For one fleet moment, hope pumped through my veins. Maybe I could slip out unseen