Forbidden Desire

[59] Wrath Of Hell

𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐃𝐞 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐚

Cold.

That was the first thing I felt when consciousness slowly tugged me back from the endless, dark void I was trapped in.

The coldness, sharp and invasion crawled beneath my skin like icy needles as I squirmed uncomfortably. My fingers twitched, but they couldn't move freely. Something rough scraped against the skin of my wrists. I shifted, only to feel the tight restraint of something biting into my arms and ankles.

Ropes.

My lashes fluttered open sluggishly and I was met with nothing but darkness. A disoriented blur.

For a moment, everything around me spun. My head throbbed painfully at the back, a sharp pulse radiating down my spine like an old wound. I winced, instinctively trying to bring a hand up to rub at the ache, but my wrists jerked uselessly against the restraints.

Panic flared up somewhere beneath the fog clouding my mind.

Where was I?

I blinked rapidly, forcing my vision to adjust to the darkness around me.

I was enclosed within four gray concrete walls, a musky dampness clinging to the air. A small, closed window was up high, far out of my reach. The faint, pungent scent of rust and cold stone almost made me gag.

The place looked like a cellar, some underground basement with no warmth or sign of life beyond the rats I could hear scratching faintly somewhere behind me.

The dress I had worn clung uncomfortably to my skin, the thin satin fabric no barrier against the freezing air that nibbled at my bare arms. My breathing came out in shallow and fast pants, fogging faintly in front of me.

I squinted around, every sound echoing too loudly in my ears. The distant dripping of water, the faint rustle of chains somewhere behind me, the beat of my own heart, abnormally erratic.

It wasn't long before the sickening realisation came crashing down me.

The ballroom.

My uncle.

Sebastian.

Elliott.

I sucked in a breath so sharp it felt like my lungs might collapse.

My brother was alive.