Cora’s POVGod, I was so fucking pissed.Leila coming up to me and trying to act like she was some stupid mediator pissed me off so much, but why? Why should it piss me off when she was offering me a life far away from constant pain, humiliation and degradation? And all of that would’ve been taken away just in exchange for the biggest asshole I’ve ever come across? It was a damned good deal, she knew it too, and I’d only just admitted it.I admitted it to myself exactly a week and three days after our conversation that’d turned her raving mad. It’d taken me 10 fucking days to admit that I was incredibly dumb to throw away an incredible offer and pursue a route that I would most likely emerge from as a loser. Besides, I couldn't claim that I would’ve been betraying Nina because she offered to let me bring friends along too, I could’ve gotten Nina her fucking freedom but I didn't even consider.it.Hah, brilliant, the longer I stay under Kai’s rule, the dumber I get.Still, I convinced m

Cora’s POVGoosebumps scattered on my skin as Freya smiled down at me, asides from the rays of sunshine that poured down into the well as she pulled off its covering, everything else caused my pulse to quicken with dread.Why dread? Freya had been torturing me for the past two days, and since I was deep in a ditch I couldn't even fight back. I was absolutely helpless and she was having the time of her life, bathing me in dirt, throwing water—that was most likely from the gutters behind the palace that were never cleaned—on me, releasing creeping insects into the pit and then leaving me in the dark to struggle with them, starving me so my resolve would break……She was ruthless, fucking deranged too.“Hello babygirl, slept alright?” I could hear the sarcasm in her voice, heavily too to show how pleased she was to be torturing me to her fill.Alone also, Kai hadn't been to the pit since the night he’d pushed me in, he didn't give a fuck what she was doing to me and he’d known how much I’

Kai’s POVI felt myself stirring, but I didn't want to open my eyes, I wasn't ready to wake up just yet.My sleep was so peaceful and this time I was even having a pleasant dream, one where I was running in circles with my mother when she was still alive, a memory that I’d buried under years and years of meting out violent justice because I didn't think I deserved the memories of her, not when she’d be disappointed in the path I’d chosen.So this once that the memory had come to me own its own accord, I basked in it and I had no intentions of rushing back to face a reality where she was absent. My fierce and brilliant mother who’d trained me in combat at a young age and still showered me with the only genuine love I’d ever experienced in all my life, why would I want to be torn away from her?No, I wasn’t waking up.In fact, I adjusted my position and realized that I was resting on an amazingly soft surface so I leaned in even further until my cheeks were perfectly cushioned by it. As

Leila’s POV“That would be the very last time that I’d ever let Cora humiliate me,” I swore before the gods that be as I sat in a circle of candles.My heart was thumping, anger was coursing through my veins, the hairs on my skin were burning, my head was ridden with chaotic thoughts, my hands were trembling at my sides, my eyes were stinging with hot tears.All of that was happening because of how infuriated and humiliated I felt, but even through everything fucking hurt at the moment, heightened emotions meant that I could draw far more power from beyond and I intended to do just that.“Spirits of the great beyond, dark witches of my ancestor’s past, the threads that intertwine day and night, I call on you to empower your child” I chanted angrily, my hands fisted by my sides and my entire being burning with hatred.Still, despite all the emotions I was channelling into my chant, the candles weren't lighting up. That could only mean that I hadn't been heard by the spirits I was calli

Kai’s POVIt’d been ninety six hours since I last set eyes on Cora; four miserable days.No matter how badly I wanted to know how she was doing, I couldn't bring myself to visit the infirmary knowing that she was lying half-dead on a bed and struggling to stay alive. Every now and then I’d taken trips there with a determination to check on her but each time I reached the door, I’d feel like my feet had been planted in the ground and I couldn't go any further.Countless times I’d ended up turning back and going to the physician’s office instead to get feedback on her well-being, and each time I was torn apart when I learned that she was still unconscious.To combat my worry, I’d buried myself in a mountain of work, I’d even relieved Leila and Levi of most of their administrative duties just because I wanted to remain sane by focusing on anything other than Cora most of the time.However, that objective was countered by the fact that some of the work I’d been invested in also had to wit