Chapter 21

Scott's POV

The cold in this place wasn’t natural.

It seeped through my bones like smoke, curling into my thoughts, turning memories to ash. Wiltz hadn’t talked to me in days, but his voice still echoed somewhere in the back of my mind. Like a stain. Like something etched too deep to scrub clean. I don't know why he is here now

I wasn’t chained, but I might as well have been.

The room was dark—no windows, only the pale blue glow of old magic humming through the cracks in the stone walls. My hands trembled when I moved them, not from fear, but from the war inside me. Part of me wanted to tear down everything and run, but the other part... the quieter part... was starting to wonder if Wiltz had been right all along and this is the real me

The word hung in the stale air like a ghost.

“Friends"

Wiltz said it so casually, like it didn’t carry weight, like it didn’t taste like blood in my mouth.