His cold fingers grazed her pale cheek. She held her breath all the while.

"Tell me, how deep is your love?"

Her throat sunk and she trembled. Still, her reddened eyes pierced his hollow ones.

"Ah," he grinned. "A woman without her tongue still manages to speak volumes."

She clenched her teeth, feeling the emptiness of her flooding mouth.

"Even so, your persistence to live is amusing. Your lover loathes you for your presumed abandonment."

Her heart sunk at the thought of her lover's tears. She's seen him broken once and now she must bear the cross of breaking him once more. To think that she wanted to be by his side until death. Now, death comes at her door and her lover thinks she has left him.

This man, who has taken her captive and cut her...