Kenneth's POV
The guards gripped my arms, their hold rough and impersonal as they dragged me down the stone corridor. The council’s decision echoed in my head, a sentence I had never expected to hear: imprisonment for the sake of my children. I told myself I was doing this for them, that it would be worth it, but it didn’t stop the dread twisting in my gut.
We turned a corner, and the smell hit me like a wall—a putrid mix of urine, feces, blood, and stale sweat that clung to the air and stung my eyes. I gagged, instinctively jerking my head away as if that would somehow help. One of the guards glanced at me, a sneer playing on his lips.
"Welcome to your new home," he muttered under his breath, barely loud enough for me to hear.
The walls were damp, the stones cold and unforgiving benea
