With a whispered incantation, darkness coalesced around us, swirling, pulling tight, wrapping Elizabeth in its unforgiving embrace.
And in the blink of an eye, we were gone?—
Vanished into the abyss.
To a place where secrets would unravel?—
And truths would be laid bare.
ChapterTen
ELIZABETH
Iawoke to the stench of mold and the skittering of rats, their tiny claws scraping against damp stone.
The air was thick with decay, and each breath filled my lungs with the cold, rotting moisture of a dungeon that seemed to swallow all light and hope.
I shifted, instinctively testing my limbs—only to feel the bite of iron securing my wrists and ankles to a heavy wooden chair.
Panic bloomed in my chest, fast and suffocating.
My heart hammered in an erratic rhythm of pure dread.
Then—the memories seeped in, slow and insidious, like poison working its way through my veins.
The Black Wraith.
A masked nightmare in my alchemy cottage.
He had been an omen—and now, I was here.
But where was I?
How had I gotten here?
No one knew where I was.
No one was coming for me.
A flicker of movement from the shadows sent a jolt through my system.
I snapped my head up, my breath catching?—
From the darkest corner of the room, he emerged.
The Black Wraith.
A figure forged in darkness, a silhouette of power and menace.
My breath hitched, terror’s icy fingers clawing at my throat as he closed the distance with slow, deliberate steps—like a predator that had already decided the outcome of this hunt.
He stood there—taller than I remembered, cloaked in shadow, the faint scent of smoke clinging to him like a warning.But it was the mask that stole my breath.
Bone-white, cracked like old porcelain, it molded to his face with unnatural perfection.The sockets were nothing but black voids, swallowing any existing light, swallowingme.I couldn’t see his eyes, but I felt them—felt the weight of his stare like cold hands around my throat.
The mouth was fixed in that twisted grin.Those jagged teeth looked like they were meant to bite, to punish, to mock.
This was it.I was going to die here, and no one would ever come for me.These were my last moments on this earth.
