Lily fought the leather wrapped around her neck, but the chains did nothing more than writhe above her like snakes, clanking out in joy at her fear. Her struggle. The air in her lungs was going shallow. She had to get out.
Smoke had filled the room, seeped in through the cracks in the door, and Lily’s throat had gone raw and hoarse from inhaling it and screaming with all the life she had left in her. The dead corpse nearby was her only friend—her only salvation in the face of death.
She gave up, hot tears rolling down her cheeks. Her eyes burned from the smoke and she buried them in her arm. All she had ever wanted to do was to protect the palace. She worked her entire life to makeup for her biological shortcomings. It wasn’t her fault that she’d been born without fangs. That she didn’t like the taste of blood, that she could brace the sun with no fear.