SILAS

“I can’t die, I can’t die, I can’t… die! I CAN’T DIE!!”

I screamed like a madman, raging as fury surged through my veins, roaring inside my prison like the death row inmate I was.

Through this corrupted eye, I could see everything happening outside that monster they called a “tree.”

Trees give life, and this was just another abomination created by those damned beings—a slow, painful death, as if our lives of slavery weren’t already enough of a hell.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I heard a soft voice when I had already given up.

I opened my cursed eye and saw her—a beautiful woman holding a baby, her gaze full of weakness and compassion, her gentle coos, her healing power reaching deep into my shattered soul.

She was a sorceress. I knew her once, in that mansion that’s been my prison since I was practically a child.

I don’t remember her name, but I want to live. I have to live, no matter what. I can’t die with this deep hatred burning my soul, so I clung to her with everything I had.

“My na