❝ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏ ɪꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴡᴏ ᴋɪɴɢᴅᴏᴍꜱ ᴡᴇɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴡᴀʀ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴇᴀᴄʜ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ? ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ꜱɪᴅᴇ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄʜᴏᴏꜱᴇ? ❞
Ever since she was sold to the Kingdom of Racaea as a young child, Sabre has grown up on the castle grounds as a blacksmith's apprentice for the roya...
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"Kayne?" I dared a step closer. Never in the decade and a half of our friendship had I ever seen him like this. So lifeless.
"Ah, you're finally back." Some life returned to the prince and he stepped out of the way so the guard could switch out the shackles. At least their job was easier now that the prisoner was unconscious.
"Have you been here the whole time? I was gone for hours." There was something troubling him, I could tell by the worry residing in his eyes.
Kayne only shrugged. "Someone had to watch over the spy."
"That's what the guards are for!" I shook my head in dismay, taking his hands in my own to assess the damage he had done to them. The skin around his knuckles was torn, blisters of blood already forming. How could he have done that to himself? "You're an idiot. Was it even worth it? Did you get any information out of him?"
He sighed, his head lowering in shame. "No." For a moment, I thought he was going to rest his forehead on my shoulder, but he stopped before he could get that far.
Being careful not to hurt his hands, I grabbed the fingers of one of them and dragged him towards the entrance of the cell. The guard that had escorted me inside was still waiting for me to return. She led us out, the screams that we'd once heard now deadly silent, and we came out to a starry expanse of the sky above us.
"Come on." I tugged him along towards the blacksmiths. "I'll clean up your wounds. I doubt you want to see your mother right now anyway."
Kayne remained silent, staring up into the night. He brooded over whatever thoughts ran rampant in his mind and I let him, knowing he would approach me if he wished to talk.
When we reached my home, the flames of the furnace lit up the whole building, even as it was beginning to die down. Auron sat at a table with scraps of a dinner in front of him, the food pushed around but not touched. The door to his workroom was still closed. His head snapped up at our arrival.
He scoffed at Kayne's battered hands. "I assume that was to the prisoner?"
The prince nodded as he slumped into the chair opposite him. He was starting to return to his normal self a little more, I could tell as his actions were less rigid. I had been gone for hours as the shackles were made. Had he been hurting the prisoner for that whole time? Or had he just been staring at him, watching and waiting for someone to save him?
Auron sighed. "I'll get some water and a cloth. I can already imagine the queen's upset squeal at the sight of them."
As he left the room, I took his chair to press Kayne for information. "What happened in there? Why did you hurt the Icrodeian more than you had to?" If I had been the person chained in that chair, would he have done the same to me? No. Of course he wouldn't.
"I didn't like the way he spoke to you. You do not deserve such viciousness." He refused to even look at me, shame eating him from the inside out.
"Is that all this is over?" He didn't need to hurt people for my sake. I didn't want that in the slightest.
