AIDEN
The darkness had swallowed me whole.
The stone walls. The smell of mold, piss, and blood. The cold iron cuffs biting into my wrists. My own heartbeat thudding in my ears, louder than the rats scuttling in the corners.
And her.
The princess.
Alexia.
Her silk shoes clicked across the dungeon floor, each step a quiet terror. She didn't look at me when she entered—not at first. She was radiant. Untouchable. Eyes the color of fury, hands wrapped in lace and power.
She wasn't here to speak. Not anymore. Just to watch.
This wasn't just dreaming anymore.
I remembered everything.
In that life, I had no name.
They called me Slave or Dog. Never by name. Never as a person. My identity had been beaten out of me by the time I was fifteen.
Except to her.
She called me her pet.
A twisted sort of ownership, like I was her favorite thing to break when the world disappointed her—which was often.
