Out of Time

~ ZARA ~

Winter was approaching in Arinel. I was in a damp, stone dungeon deep under the earth dressed in nothing but a thin cotton tunic.

It had been colder and colder each night before now, but this was the first time I'd been woken by the cold, the feeling of the stones under me sucking away what little heat my body generated.

My teeth were chattering.

For the first time, I was genuinely nervous that I might not survive this.

They'd been feeding me well and no one had beaten me, though I'd seen others receive that kind of treatment from the guards. It scared the shit out of me.

That was the thing I clung to every time I started thinking David really had thrown me down here to forget about me.

I was getting special treatment. The guards resented it, telling me it was only because they all believed if I died I'd get free.