eclipsed nova (UTM Feysand)

5

A day later I was dragged from my cell by the same burly guards who'd sent me to Rhysand's room last time. I secretly prayed they took me anywhere but there. I hurled insults at both guards, hoping to rile them up to get any kind of response, to maybe trigger them into just letting me die.

They ignored my desperate attempts, gripping my arms with bruising force and relentlessly dragging me forward. I felt like a fabric doll being tossed and pulled about. It didn't matter how much I fought. I would always be overpowered here. Perhaps there was no escape. Maybe this was all I was meant for. It was pathetic, really. 

I'd become hollow from my time in the dungeons. I'd lost all sense of time or self. The light now made my eyes ache, piercing shots of pain drilling into my skull in response. My stomach cramped from the hunger, and my skin had a thick layer of sweat and grime. My hair was a knotted mess, and I'd contemplated trying to find a way to cut it off a time or two.

So, when they slammed me to my knees in front of Amarantha, I couldn't bring myself to do much fighting. I knelt there, staring at her with a blank expression, not having the energy or will to conjure emotions. Amarantha's cruel smile was painted in her usual red. She rested her face against her hand as though she were bored. Tamlin sat on the matching black stone throne next to her, quite intentionally looking anywhere but at me.

"You look terrible," Amarantha laughed at me, the sound echoing off the red marble floor I knelt on. "Not that you were particularly anything to look at before, but this..." Cruelty sparkled in her black eyes, latched onto me like soul-sucking pits. Her gaze made my skin crawl like thousands of worms trapped under my skin.

I said nothing, just staring back at her as if she hadn't spoken. I wouldn't give her the reactions she so clearly wanted from me. She was bored, and antagonizing people she viewed as below her was her favorite hobby, I'd learned. It seemed I was finally her next target.

Rhysand emerged from Amarantha's wing of the underground stone palace; hair wet as though he'd just showered. His steps faltered when he saw me knelt before the dais, but quickly recovered, flashing his Queen a brilliant smile and leaning to kiss her cheek. Amarantha didn't break eye contact with me as he kissed her face. Like she wanted to see how it would make me react. But I simply didn't.

"Rhysand, darling, you have impeccable timing," she cooed. "I was just in need of services only you can provide." Rhysand slowly smirked.

"Have I not just provided enough? You're in need of me again already?" He purred to her. Gross. Literally gross. I didn't even give him a second glance. I decided I didn't care what he did anymore.

"Clever boy," Amarantha chuckled. "Our feral little human here has been rotting away in her cell for weeks. I thought about what I should do to her from the moment my sweet Attor brought her to me." I fought the chill that spilled down my spine like ice water at the mention of the bat-like demon Amarantha kept like a pet.

"I'm assuming you've decided?" Rhysand raised a brow. Tamlin gripped the arm of his throne the slightest bit tighter, his knuckles whitening under the pressure. It was the only indication he gave that he was even conscious.

"My opinion of humans is no secret. Finnicky, disloyal things they are. However, this one Tamlin here seems to have formed an attachment to," Amarantha sighed, looking to where Tamlin had loosened his grip, entirely unreactive to her attentions. His long blonde hair and golden mask hid most of his face from her. She reached out her long, pale fingers and tucked a lock of hair behind his ear, tracing the shape of it as she went. "I'm quite selfish, and it has always puzzled me how he's resisted my attentions. Though I believe we've finally come to see eye-to-eye."

"Is that so?" Rhysand chuckled, the stiffness in his shoulder giving away his emotions.

"Tamlin has told me she means nothing to him," Amarantha replied. "I intend to test his loyalty to me. You know how I love my games." Tamlin remained unphased, unmoving, and uncaring. It felt like a kick in the gut.