Elysium: Desired by the Cold-hearted Princess [GL]
Chapter 114 114: Powerless

Electra's Pov

I was furious. Not just irritated or annoyed—no, this was an all-consuming, bone-deep kind of rage that made me want to scream until my lungs gave out.

It made me want to destroy something, to break someone, smash their skulls, gouge out their eyes, beat the living daylight out of them.

All in all, I just wanted to make someone pay, but no matter how much fury coursed through me, I couldn't do anything about it. Not with this damned handcuff chaining me to the rail. Not with my body trembling in the cold, left in nothing but my bra and panties.

I yanked at the handcuff again, the sharp bite of the metal digging into my skin only adding to my frustration. The stupid thing wouldn't budge, and I hated how pathetic I must have looked, struggling like an animal caught in a trap.

This wasn't me. This couldn't be me. I wasn't the type to be humiliated, to be reduced to this.

And yet, here I was.

Never in my nineteen years had I felt so humiliated, so utterly powerless. The last time I'd felt anything even close to this was when I was a child, too young and too scared to stand up to Queen Jella's cruel games, but even back then, I'd known that one day, I'd grow strong enough to fight back.

And even though I haven't exactly fought back against Jella, I'd become someone who couldn't be hurt, couldn't be humiliated because I'd learned how to wield power like a weapon.

But now? Now I didn't have that power. I didn't have anything. Just a human body, stripped of the strength, the status, and the fire that had made me who I was.

I let out a bitter laugh. "Enjoy life as an ordinary person," I muttered to myself, the words dripping with sarcasm.

That's what I'd told myself the next day after this whole nightmare began. I'd tried to convince myself that maybe, just maybe, this could be an opportunity to experience something different. To live without the expectations or the constant need to prove myself.

But who was I kidding? I wasn't cut out for this. Being ordinary wasn't freeing—it was suffocating. It meant being at the mercy of people like Seraphina Vale, who had no idea that the life she thought was hers, was actually mine, and she was doing to me what I usually did to others.

My jaw tightened, and I felt my nails digging into my palm as I clenched my fist. With what Seraphina had done, she had shown me just how powerless I was in this world. She'd stripped me of everything—my clothes, my dignity, my ability to fight back—and left me here to drown in my own rage, and it was working. Oh, it was working.

I hated her for it. Hated her with every fiber of my being, but more than that, I hated myself for letting this happen. For being so stupid, so naïve, to think I could ever enjoy this new reality.

I scoffed, shaking my head in disbelief. "What the hell were you thinking, Electra?" I muttered under my breath. "That you could just live a normal life? Make friends? Be satisfied with being a nobody?" The words tasted bitter on my tongue.

The wind picked up, chilling me to the bone and making me shiver uncontrollably. The rooftop was terribly quiet, and I leaned my head back against the rail, staring up at the stars scattered across the night sky.

They were beautiful, I supposed, in a distant, indifferent kind of way, but even their beauty felt like mockery right now.

*You're nothing, they seemed to say. Just another speck of dust in an endless universe.*

I swallowed hard, blinking against the sting of tears that threatened to form. Crying wouldn't solve anything—it never had. If I was going to get through this, I needed to focus. To plan. To think about what came next.

And what came next was revenge.

Seraphina thought she'd won tonight. She thought she could humiliate me and walk away without consequences, but she was mistaken. It didn't matter that I was a nobody in this world, I was still going to make her pay for this.

For every smug smirk, every taunting word, every ounce of dignity she'd stolen from me. My lips curled into a cold, humorless smile as the thought took root in my mind.

For now, though, I had to endure. I had to survive this night, no matter how much it stung my pride. I wouldn't let this break me. I couldn't.

The wind picked up sharply, causing a shiver to run through my body, and before I could stop myself, a sneeze erupted from me.

I cursed under my breath, tugging uselessly at the handcuff again when something strange happened. A voice—unfamiliar—spoke through the wind.

"Hello, Electra Vale," it said, clear as day.

I froze, every muscle in my body tensing. My head snapped up, eyes darting around the empty rooftop. The sound had been close, but there was no sign of another person, and my heart began to pound.

"Who's there?" I demanded, my voice shaky.

It was silent for a moment, and then the voice came again.

"Don't bother looking," it said, almost amused. "You won't see me."

My eyes narrowed as I turned in every direction, straining to locate the source of the voice.

"Who the hell are you?" I snapped, tugging at the handcuff again out of sheer instinct. "Show yourself!"

The voice chuckled lightly, the sound carried by the wind. It wasn't mocking exactly, but it was unsettlingly calm.

"Still demanding answers," it said. "Even now, when you can't even move around. How very Electra Vale of you."

The words hit me like a jolt of electricity, and I froze again. My blood ran colder than the wind.

Powerless.

I shook my head, trying to make sense of what I was hearing. "This isn't happening," I muttered to myself. "It's just the cold—it's messing with my head. I'm hearing things. That's all."

"You're not hallucinating," the voice said sharply. "I'm very real, Electra, and I've been waiting for this moment for a long time."

My stomach churned as the reality of my situation started to sink in. Either I had lost my mind entirely, or there really was someone—or something—here with me. "What do you want?" I demanded.

The voice didn't respond immediately. When it did, the tone was different—darker, more pointed.

"How does it feel?" it asked.

I frowned. "How does what feel?"

"To finally be powerless."

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