Page 155 of The Gilded Cage

I know you’re scared.But I promise you don’t have to be.

His voice washed over her like pure sunshine, and she wanted to tell him he was wrong. She wasn’t scared anymore.

Because she loved him.

More than anything.

And when she finally awoke one crisp morning and found herself surrounded by familiar limestone walls, the first thing she did was murmur his name, reaching for him.

But he wasn’t there.

Reality crashed down on Kiva, even as the angeldust still flooding her system sought to regain control of her mind. She fought it, remembering how Jaren had looked after he’d kissed her — and then the pain in his features after he’d learned of her betrayal.

A sob left her, but her anguish was muted by the drug, as was her fear when Warden Rooke’s dark face appeared, staring triumphantly through the iron bars of her prison wagon.

“Pity we filled your position in the infirmary,” he said, “but there’s always plenty of work in the tunnels.” His lips stretched into a smile. “Welcome home, N18K442.”

And that was the last Kiva knew before the angeldust pulled her under again, leaving her with one final conscious thought:

If Rooke was sending her to the tunnels, she would have six months left.

A year at the most.

And then she would be dead.

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