Chapter 153

OLIVIA'S POV It began with silence. Not the comforting kind—no. This silence had weight, pressing down on me like invisible chains, suffocating and cold. I was standing—or maybe suspended—my arms bound in thick iron cuffs above my head, my feet just barely touching the cold stone floor. I couldn't move or scream. I could barely breathe. The darkness around me pulsed as if it were alive. Whispers echoed—low, inhuman, unintelligible. I braced myself, expecting Evelyn to emerge from the shadows like she always did, venom in her smile and hatred in her eyes. Because that's how it always went. The betrayal. The ambush. The venom-laced words and the knife behind the back. But this time... it wasn't Evelyn. Nor was it Dorian. Did they leave me in some kind of void? Why was there no one here? Where the hell was I? No real place could be this dark and strange. Were they associating with the dark witches? This place resembled their territory. The shadows moved on their own. They shifted and curl