My mother's words were still ringing in my head when the cell door groaned open. The metallic clang cutting through the silence like a blade. A pair of guards stepped in, their black uniforms crisp, eyes cold and unfeeling.
I pushed myself to my feet, heart lurching into my throat. Every instinct screamed for me to run, but I forced myself to stand tall.
"We've come to take you to your hearing, miss," one of them said.
I nodded once, swallowing the dryness in my throat. The air outside the cell hitting me like a foreign thing. Cooler, cleaner, though still heavy with the scent of damp stone and iron. After nearly a day of being trapped in the stench of decay, with heightened vampiric scent, even that felt like mercy.
They led me through a series of narrow corridors, our footsteps echoing against the stone walls. The deeper we went, the more the air changed. Less like a dungeon, more like Court.
