Chapter One
“Tell me sprout, how would you like to see your princeling again?”
His words made my body stop abruptly. I remained as silent as a marble statue, unable to fill my lungs with air.
See him again.See Ansgar again. The words drilled into me. Their power, a desire ablaze in my heart. My mind. My body. Inside every muscle.See him again.
“How?” I whispered, my words as heavy as iron, wanting to shackle the answer from his lips. Rhylan materialised in front of me, jumping the fifty feet that separated us in a split second. His mouth displayed that proud smug smile of his.
“How?” I repeated, demanding, my words catching strength, powered by the roots of hope blooming in my chest. “Tell me!” I shouted, my fists finding their target on his stomach.
I shoved him with all the anger I had, all that remained, but his stature barely moved a muscle. That grin popped over his mouth again, plastering mockery and curiosity.
“You must be desperate…” the bastard purred into my ear, delaying the words I wanted to hear most.
“Rhylan, I swear to god…” An empty threat. Both he and I knew it. There was nothing I could do, nothing in my favour. I had no advantage over him and I remained completely and helplessly at his mercy.
“How can I see him again? How is such a thing possible?” I insisted, my eyes wet with unshed tears of anger and false hope. If he had come here just to tantalize and mock me, I would not give him the satisfaction. He had already done enough.
“It’s quite simple, little sprout.” I grimaced at the mention of the nickname he gave me long ago. When I was but a silly girl. Now he had found a wounded woman.
“Hush now, tiny sprout. You will give yourself a heart attack. My question is simple.” He took the step that separated us, closing in the distance between us. Rhylan’s adamant eyes scanned mine. Reading my thoughts, I understood. He had that power, after all.
He must have not liked what he saw in there, because his upper lip twitched.
“Your mind is so depressing,” he pointed a finger at my temple and patted it over my skin, emphasizing his findings.
“I wonder who is at fault for that,” I spat. My patience ran thin by the second, and I did not plan on spending any more of my time as the target of amusement of a fireling, no matter how powerful he may be.
He understood my impatience and displayed a proud grin.
“Very well. To business then.”
I stepped away, making my way around him, decided on leaving him behind, and returning to the car. But he moved to the side, blocking my way.
“What would you do to see Ansgar again?”
As he said the words, the fireling grabbed my chin, lifting my face slightly to meet his eyes. Just the mention of his name on Rhylan’s lips formed another crack in what I thought was an already too broken heart. But what I found on his face was pure interest.
“Everything.” I responded in a single breath. The truth. I would do anything to go back in time and see my love again.
“Great.” Rhylan smiled with satisfaction. “Let’s make a deal.”
Chapter Two
“Let’s see if you are feeling chatty today, prince.”
I heard the voice as he opened the cell door, making the hinges scream in pain. Just as I had been, over and over and over. I could barely remember my own name.
The fireling walked to me, finding my body crouched in a corner, trying to amass whatever coldness I could from the musty stone wall. It did not help much, did not offer any relief for my infected wounds nor the fresh cuts he had come to inflict.
“Come now, you disgusting filth, the commanders wait for no one.”
As he finished spitting the demand, I felt my body lifted by the shoulders and dragged outside the cell. I could not see much, between the iron shackles on both my wrists and ankles and the hair running down my face in big lumps of dried blood, I barely distinguished my surroundings.
Throbbing pain squeezed my ankles when the iron chains clattered against the stone floors and bumped back into my legs. I did not know how much time had passed, how long I’d been here.
Tortured day in and day out. Though the concept of sunlight remained relative to this place.
