For one terrifying second, the phantom afterimage of the blizzard still blinded him—the collapsing cliffside, the masked abomination lunging through the whiteout, and Kyle's desperate screams echoing from somewhere behind him before the world fell away beneath his feet.
His chest heaved sharply. A sudden, blinding flash of agony exploded through his shattered ribs, turning his vision completely white at the edges. A strangled groan escaped his throat as he instinctively tried to twist his body, only for the cold, merciless bite of iron to halt him midway.
Chains.
The heavy metal rattled harshly, the sound vibrating against the stone slab beneath him.
For several agonizing seconds, Mathias could only stare at her in fractured silence, his pulse hammering against his ears. Then, closing his eyes against the throbbing pain in his skull, he let his head fall heavily back against the stone.
"…How long?" he managed to ask, his voice a hoarse, gravelly scrape.
