Chapter 185

Celena's Perspective Brett was dead. This struck my mind like a heavy hammer, reverberating repeatedly, yet I couldn't truly understand it. How could that be? That Brett who always wore a helpless smile, secretly brought me food and medicine, and told me in my darkest years that there was still sunshine and forests outside? The Brett who told me, "Live on, Celena, just for yourself"? Even my name was given to me by him.   My heart felt as if it were being clutched by an invisible hand, aching so much that I couldn't breathe. Fragments of memory uncontrollably welled up: the cold and damp stone walls of the dungeon, Brett's focused profile as he carefully treated my wound, his low voice telling me stories about the outside world, about the city, about freedom, and the silent clenched and loosened fists when he was mocked by his fellow hunters for being weak... He was the only light during those years of imprisonment.  He was not a relative, b