Chapter 9: The Imprisoned Queen

Solitude. It was a different kind of prison than the one I’d known before. Before, I had been a prisoner of my secret, of Caleb’s presence, of the bond that tethered me to a man who despised what he needed. Now, I was a prisoner of stone and silence. The old watchtower was a cold, circular room at the highest point of the fortress, with a single, narrow window overlooking the mist-shrouded mountains. The door was barred from the outside, and the only sounds were the wind howling through the...