Chapter 349

Chapter 349
Zayn

We reached the dungeon several minutes later, although by then I had almost completely stopped paying attention to where the guards were taking me.

My mind was still trapped inside the ceremonial hall and seemed incapable of moving past what had happened there, replaying the same moments over and over again no matter how desperately I tried to push them away.

The dungeon was buried beneath the entire castle, far enough underground that every trace of the kingdom above slowly disappeared the deeper we went, with the polished marble corridors eventually giving way to narrow passageways carved from rough gray stone and the warm golden light of the upper floors being replaced by the weak orange glow of torches mounted along the walls.

The farther down we went, the colder the air became, and even though I was still overheated from the transformation and the magic that had violently forced the beast back beneath my skin, the chill eventually began settling over my bare body, raising goosebumps across my arms and making every step feel heavier than the one before it.

I barely registered any of it.

My bare feet scraped against the freezing stone as the guards continued dragging me forward, their hands still locked tightly around my arms because apparently they didn’t trust me enough to let me walk without being restrained, even though I could barely keep myself upright after what had just happened.

Every muscle in my body ached.

My shoulders burned.

My chest still felt tight from the transformation, and there was an unpleasant pressure beneath my skin that made it feel as though the beast hadn’t completely disappeared, as though some part of it was still pacing somewhere inside me, waiting for another opportunity to break free.

Nobody spoke.

The guards didn’t look at me, and I didn’t look at them.

There was nothing left to say anyway.

Eventually, we reached a long corridor lined with iron cages, some of them completely empty while others disappeared into the darkness beyond the reach of the torches, and the sight of them made something cold settle in my stomach.

One of the guards stopped beside the nearest cage and pulled a heavy key from his belt.

The metal lock turned with a dull click.

“Inside.”

I stared at the open cage.

I knew I was supposed to move, but I couldn’t make myself do it. My mind was still somewhere else entirely, still standing beneath the bright lights of the ceremonial hall while the priest waited for an answer I had never been able to give.

The guard’s expression hardened.

“Move.”

I didn’t.

Not because I was resisting him, but because my body simply wasn’t responding quickly enough.

His hand closed around the back of my arm, fingers digging into my skin as he shoved me forward.

I stumbled across the threshold, my foot catching against the uneven stone, and the next thing I knew I was falling.

My hands struck the floor first, saving my face from hitting the stone, although the impact sent a sharp sting through my palms that barely registered beneath everything else.

Before I could push myself up, the iron door slammed shut behind me.

The sound echoed through the dungeon.

Then came the lock.

Click.

The guards remained outside for a moment, but I didn’t look at them.

I couldn’t.

I stayed on the floor with both hands pressed against the cold stone, breathing heavily while I stared at the ground beneath me and tried to understand how my life had somehow reached this point.

Eventually, I heard footsteps.

The guards turned and walked away.

I listened to the sound of their boots echoing through the corridor, growing quieter and quieter until eventually there was nothing left.

No voices.

No footsteps.

No movement.

Only silence.

Complete, suffocating silence.

I remained exactly where I was for several seconds, unable to convince myself to move, because some part of me still seemed to believe that if I stayed perfectly still long enough, I might wake up and find myself somewhere else.

Anywhere else.

But I didn’t wake up.

The dungeon remained around me.

The cold stone remained beneath my hands.

The iron bars remained between me and the corridor.

And the memories remained inside my head.

My fingers began trembling.

At first it was barely noticeable, but the shaking grew stronger until I finally lifted my hands from the floor and stared at them.

They were human.

Completely human.

There were no claws.

No blood.

No indication that only minutes earlier those same hands had belonged to something that had torn through a person without hesitation.

That was what made it so difficult to understand.

They looked normal.

They looked harmless.

They looked like my hands.

But I knew what they had done.

The realization came crashing down again, and this time there was no noise or chaos around me to distract me from it.

The ceremony.

The priest asking whether I accepted the bond.

The silence.

The beast.

Charlotte.

The blood.

The screams.

My father.

The attack.

The magic.

My body being forced back into its human form.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but the memories only became clearer.

I could still see her.

I could still hear the scream.

I could still remember the sensation of claws tearing through flesh, and the worst part was that I hadn’t been hallucinating or imagining it or remembering something that had happened to someone else.

I had been there.

I had done it.

“No…”

The word left my mouth so quietly that I almost didn’t hear it myself.

I pressed both hands against my face and dragged them slowly downward, trying to steady my breathing while my chest tightened painfully.

“No, no, no…”

I shook my head.

But the memory wouldn’t disappear.

Charlotte was dead.

I had killed her.

My stomach twisted violently at the thought, and for a moment I had to brace myself against the wall because I genuinely thought I was going to throw up.

I swallowed hard and forced myself to breathe.

Once.

Twice.

Again.

It didn’t help.

My breathing remained uneven, and the more I tried to calm myself, the more questions appeared in my head.

How had this happened?

Why had the beast taken control?

Why hadn’t I been able to stop it?

And most importantly, how the hell was I supposed to live with the fact that I had killed someone while trapped inside my own body?

I pushed myself backward until my back hit the stone wall, then slowly pulled my knees toward my chest, resting my forearms against them as I stared down at my hands again.