Rae opened her eyes, her vision swimming as she groaned in pain. A metallic taste filled her mouth. Rae rolled to her hands and knees as she spat on the stone floor of her cell. A silvery liquid swam in the spit on the ground.

Liquid iron.

The same poison that had killed her mother. Rae cursed, doubling over, she forced herself to vomit up what she could of the poison she had been forced to consume. Sure enough, more silver liquid came up.

Hot tears ran down her face as she squeezed her eyes shut. She would not be so lucky to die from this, but part of her wanted to. It had all been a dream. The second one had been a twisted nightmare, but the first one, that had been real. It had happened less than two years ago. Even thinking about him hurt.

Benjin's easy smile had always made her feel warm and safe inside. She would never again hear the carefree way he laughed. She would never again get to sneak off with him at dinner parties or go for a run in the early mornings before the sun had fully risen in the sky. Rae would never get to spar with him in the afternoons or go on hunts in the King's forest.

Rae later learned she had killed twelve guards that day. It had not been enough to quiet the pain she felt inside. Rae wondered if she might have loved him, or would have possibly even married him one day. That strange dream had dug up her greatest fear of all. What if Benjin had been her mate? What if she had been too stubborn to realize it and had lost him forever?

If she stayed in this prison much longer, she would see Benjin and her mother again soon. Rae leaned her back against the cell wall, wincing at the small movement. Thinking of her mother only caused guilt to fill her. When she had first joined her father's ranks, she had made a promise to herself, that her father would never have to light a pyre for her. He would not lose her too. But now, she was not so sure. She was not even sure if her father was still alive.

Rae closed her eyes. The world was so quiet and she was so tired. A sound, as if the sky itself was cracking open, exploded into the night. Rae did not even have time to process what she had heard as a booming sound quickly followed the explosion. It was like a clap of thunder directly overhead, it shook the walls and ceiling of the cell. Small bits of stone showered down above her. Her hair stood on end.

Rae was already on her feet as three alarm bells began their morbid chimes. Dragging her chains behind her she stood on the tips of her toes at the door. The small grate at the top of the door was just big enough that she could see a small distance down the hall in either direction. Prison guards ran down the halls, a few glancing in her cell’s direction before carrying on. Rae knew it was not her they were looking at, but the two black-masked guards that stood outside her cell door. Neither of them moved.

Rae could smell them, smell the magic coming off of them. Traitors. That is what these males outside her cell were. Traitors to their people, and now serving their enemy. The lip pulled back in a silent snarl at the thought. Had they been given the same option as she was. Join the Prince, or die?

Rae pushed away from the small window. The sound of the bells was quieter in her cell. Much quieter than they had been near the door and in the hall. Her ears still rang with the noise. Rae covered her pointed ears, backing as far away from the door as possible. Breathing, she focused her mind, through the haze of liquid iron still burning through her system. Slowly, the bells quieted. She could hear new sounds beneath the sound of the bells. Guards running through the halls, shouting orders. Armor clanking as they ran. And then screaming.

It was not the usual screams of Arden. It was not the sound of madden prisoners screaming as the iron burned their skin and boiled their blood. No, these were the screams of battle. She could smell it, the metallic scent of blood. It filled the air around her. As if Arden itself were bleeding.

She did not let herself think about it. She could not let herself hope. But if her father…

No, she would not think that way. She could not afford to think that way. Rae leaned back against the cold stone wall. Slowly she sank down to the floor.

Rae had been on and off enough battlefields in her life to know the sounds of battle and the smell of death.

Shadows bobbed in the flickering torchlight outside her cell door. Quietly, Rae moved out of the light and into the darkest shadows of her cell. She could hear muffled voices outside, but their voices sounded as if they were underwater.

She could only make out two words, “Princess,” and “execution”. It seemed the Prince wanted to speed the poison he had given her along as it ate away whatever was left of her magic. If there was any shred of it remaining to begin with.

A single emotion filled her up at the thought of dying. It was not what she had expected. She had expected to welcome death, after all these years. Yet now, staring it in the face, she refused to give in so easily.

Rae shook with anger as she stared at the iron door. Slowly retreating towards the far corners of her cell, she pressed herself into the shadows. Her back was against the cool stone wall, her heels digging into the floor. The guards on the other side of the door had stopped talking.

Rae focused on every sound she could hear. The latch clicking as it unlocked echoed in her head. Her hands began to sweat, and her body began to shake with anticipation. Closing her eyes she focused her mind.

She was a warrior, a force of nature, unbreakable. She feared nothing. She was Death. When Rae opened her eyes, her mind had gone quiet. Her body was as still as the stone wall behind her.

The door slowly opened and it felt as if her heart had stopped. She immediately recognized the male standing in the doorway of her cell. The silver crest on the breast of his uniform glowed in the dim light.

The Captain was larger than Rae remembered. He looked bigger than some of the fae warriors her father had once commanded. The male's eyes narrowed, making them almost invisible behind that mask. His grip tightened around the hilt of his sword as he took a single step across the threshold of her cell.

Rae rubbed her hands on the tattered clothes covering her. She would fight with everything she had. He might be larger and stronger than her, but she was smarter and faster. She had to use that to her advantage. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed at the ground, pulling loose a piece of stone from the floor.

His eyes met her own and grew wide in surprise. Her lips peeled back in a half-grin as she bared her teeth.

Rae squeezed the makeshift weapon in her hand. The stone cut into her palm. The light sting helped her ignore the pain of the healing wounds on her back.

The male took another step towards her, almost close enough for her to reach. Just a bit closer, and he would be in range. Tumbling forward. The Captain of the Royal Guard fell face-first into the stone floor.

Rae blinked in disbelief. The anger that had been bubbling to the surface only moments before fizzled into confusion. A small obsidian dagger glinted in the torchlight planted in the halfling's back. He was dead. Killed by an Etherie weapon.

A second shadow stretched out on the floor, lit by the fire from the hall torchlight. Rae did not dare breathe too loudly. She watched as a Royal Guard silently stepped into the room. He made no sound as he moved.

His face was covered by that same horrible black mask. The royal guard paused over his Captain's body. But he did not seem alarmed. Crouching down, he pulled the dagger out of the oversized halfling's back.

Nothing made sense. Was this also a dream? Had this guard killed the Captain and if so, why?

The traitor guard looked up his eyes catching on her small figure, half-hidden in the shadows of the cell. A single emerald green eye shone brightly beneath his mask.

“Ellinna?” His voice was soft as he spoke into the darkness. Rae knew that name. Ellinna was the Princess of Ameron. The female had been taken from the Southern Palace only a few months before Leona fell to Kilian.

As far as she knew, they had yet to find the Princess. No ransom had been made. Most assumed the delicate female was dead.

The male pulled back his hood and pulled the mask from his face. He removed the eye patch to reveal one bright turquoise blue eye. His green eye flickered until it too was the same glowing color of the sea.

Rae stiffened. The changing eye color was too reminiscent of that strange dream. She did not dare move.

Rae studied his face. She did not recognize him, yet every instinct inside of her screamed that he could be trusted. Rae noted his glittering golden and white hair. It fell almost to his shoulders and two sharply pointed ears poked out on each side of his head. He was not a halfling at all. If she had to guess, he was a full-blooded Etherie fae male. And not just any fae, from his appearance, he was a Southern fae.

The male's scent crashed into her. He smelled of warmth and sea and the earth just before it rained. Rae blinked in confusion. The Southern and Northern fae had long been at odds. They were not outright enemies, but they were far from allies either.

The male must have picked up on her scent as well as he stiffened almost imperceptibly. He at least knew that she was not the Princess he was looking for. She wondered just how much he could tell from her scent. With so much iron in the walls and air around him, her scent would be muddled.

She only hoped the iron concealed enough to keep her identity a secret. She was not sure how he would react to learning just who he had found.

Rae had no desire to be freed from one prison only to wind up in another. Though she knew any Ameronian prison would be better than this one.

If he rescued her, even if he took her as his prisoner, it could mean her eventual freedom. She could wait it out. Let her body heal, and then make her move to escape.

"I won't hurt you," he whispered into the darkness. He did not look away from her as he carefully cut the keyring from the Captain's belt.

"For now," Rae's raspy voice whispered back. The male’s attention snapped to her as he registered that it was a female voice that spoke. She knew that look. That protective instinct had undoubtedly washed over him. It was in his blood to protect females and children, as it was in every fae’s blood.

"I am a friend, I mean you no harm," he answered slowly. Not promising anything.

Clever.

She wanted to scoff at his words, yet there was something about him that was almost familiar. Her instincts that usually screamed for her to fight and kill, were practically purring because he was simply in the room. For the first time since her capture, Rae actually felt safe.

The thought unnerved her.

It occurred to her that this could all just be another dream. The recent drug-induced dream of Benjin and her mother being alive still hurt to remember, even though she knew it had not been real.

The male drew closer, raising his hands to her in surrender.

"Shh, you're safe now," he whispered.

Rae could see his high cheekbones and chiseled jawline - covered in a short beard. His teal blue eyes were breathtaking as he studied her in the shadows. Though, he looked at her like one would view a wounded animal.

The male placed his obsidian dagger on the ground. Obsidian, not iron, not a dream, not a trick. The black glassy material was perfect for blades, arrows, even jewelry. It was then that Rae looked to her hand that still was clutching the piece of jagged stone, her makeshift weapon.

Opening her hand, she reluctantly let the stone tumble to the ground. The male reached out his hand, taking her own, he pulled her from the shadows. The chains still attached to her wrists clicked together.

She felt his gaze roam over her body, taking in the horrors of what she had become. It was not the hungry, or hateful stare the guards regarded her with. Hate and lust were emotions she traded in her whole life. This male looked at her with pity, and that was not something she knew how to deal with. Steeling her nerves, she looked up at him. He was still taking in every detail of her beaten and weak body. But he was not hesitating. Not even after realizing that she was a Northern fae. She wondered how he would react if he learned she was a shifter. Or had been. She was not anymore.

"Fates," he cursed under his breath. Rae knew how she looked, and normally she would not have cared. Even the old her would not have cared about being covered in grime. With this male, she was painfully aware of what state she was in.

Her once warm skin was grey and pale. Dirt and grime were caked all over her body. Her midnight blue hair was stringy and matted with oil and a mixture of dirt and blood. She had almost no fat left on her body — her skin stretched over her bones. The clothes she had been wearing when she was first captured were now torn and hung off her frame, barely covering her chest. Her chest... her eyes dropped to the ground at the thought of them. What had once been firm perfectly sized breasts were now shriveled to the point where she could pass as a young boy.

"Let's get those off of you," he muttered, staring down at the iron shackles with disgust. Slowly reaching out, he grasped her small hand in his. The callouses on his palms and fingers scraped against her skin. Callouses, from years of wielding a sword.

This was real. He was real.

Rae took in a deep breath. The male winced as his bare hand brushed against the iron shackles. The key in his hand was already leaving red marks on his fingers. Rae felt the key slide into the lock. She felt the lock click with a satisfying pop, that echoed through her whole being. As the first shackle fell from her wrist, she felt the cool air against her skin.

Each shackle that fell, felt like a weight lifting off her body. Like she had been drowning for so long, and she could finally breathe again.

Rae looked up at the male and blinked back her surprise. She could see the anger and fury in his eyes. She could feel the air around him pulsing with his magic, no doubt it was Titania's earth or fire magic.

The male did something unthinkable. He took the obsidian dagger and placed it into her hand. His warm hand wrapped around her's.

This is real. She repeated to herself once more. The male had wasted no time in walking out towards the door. Rae hesitated at the threshold. As she stepped out, no guards at her sides, no shackles on her wrists, she almost did not know what to do.

Rae took a step forward, but she stumbled. Her foot catching on something laying across the ground. She cursed herself for not paying more attention. Her head spun at the sudden movement of her fall as she went crashing towards the floor. The male's strong arms wrapped around her as she fell into his arms.