Soraya's POV
I ran.
The castle corridors twisted around me like a maze, shadows lunging across the floor as if they wanted to drag me back to him. My lungs burned, my heart felt like it might split open, but I didn't stop.
I couldn't stop.
Ethan's words wouldn't leave my head.
The curse. The ritual. The blood sacrifice.
My blood.
He had been planning to kill me just to be free of some curse, just to crawl back to Lila.
A sob clawed its way up my throat, but I choked it down, the sound coming out more like a growl.
How stupid had I been?
I had thought he was different. That there was something soft and human under all that alpha steel. I had let myself believe he cared about me.
And tonight — gods, tonight — I had given him everything.
The memory of his hands on me, his voice whispering my name, the way he had looked at me like I was the only thing in his world — it all felt poisoned now, wrong.
I turned the next corner too fast and slammed into something solid.