Chapter 245

**Cassandra’s POV**

Chains clanked as I adjusted, the cold metal biting into my wrists. The dungeon's darkness pressed down on me like a suffocating weight, but even in this despair, I held onto a sliver of hope—Reed would come for me. Each footstep down the corridor made my heart race, anticipation gripping my soul, but they had always led to disappointment. The resolve in me was slowly eroding.

Suddenly, a different sound echoed through the stone chamber—footsteps I couldn't mistake. My heart lifted briefly, but it sank just as quickly when I saw the familiar figure before me. It wasn’t Reed. It was my mother.

"Mum?" My voice cracked with the strain of days of disuse.

"Cassandra," she breathed, rushing to my side. Her appearance stunned me. It hadn't been long since I last saw her, but she looked like she had aged years in mere days. Her usually bright eyes were clouded with worry and exhaustion. I hated that I was the one coursing all of her pain, and for the first time, I wished t