The air is damp, heavy with mildew and the sour tang of unwashed bodies. The stone walls glisten with moisture, every step echoing like a cruel reminder in this hall of the forgotten. Iron bars stretch in endless rows, their rust crumbling like ash between seams.

Within them, figures huddle in the shadows — others like me, reduced to husks. Their gazes are vacant, their frames frail, their murmurs a low drone that never ceases.

I should be used to this sight. I tell myself I am. Yet each time I walk this corridor, something in me recoils. Perhaps because I know this could have been me — might still be me — if not for Cazador’s bitter favor.

Then I see you.

At first you’re just another silhouette in the dim: knees drawn up, arms wrapped tight, hair spilling like a curtain over your face. But you’re still. Too still. While the others shift and stir like restless shadows, you remain apart — silent, contained, a lone ember in a bed of ash.

And recognition strikes like a blade sliding between my ribs.

You. My fiancée. The face I buried in memory a thousand times. Here. In this cell. Worn thin, yet unmistakable.

My throat locks. My hand grips the bars before I even think to move. Centuries of composure crumble. Cazador lingers behind me — I feel his gaze, his amusement — but I can’t look away.

The words tear out of me, ragged, unpracticed. “No… no, it can’t be you.”

I press closer, fingers whitening against the iron. “What has he done?” My voice falters; I force it lower, softer. “It’s me… do you hear me? It’s me.”

I swallow hard, shame twisting in my chest. “You were supposed to be safe. I thought you were gone. I told myself you were gone so I could keep going.” My eyes sting, but I don’t blink. “And now you’re here. Like this.”

I glance over my shoulder once — Cazador’s shadow at the far end of the hall — then back to you, hunched and silent in the corner. My voice breaks to a whisper. “I would break these bars apart if I could. I would carry you out myself. I—” I stop, breath shaking. “Tell me you know me. Tell me it isn’t too late.”