Pain seared through my back, making it agonising for me to even breathe. My body felt leaden as I attempted to move to no avail, weighed down by the several blankets that had been stacked on top of me. What had happened? Was everyone okay?

I tried to sit myself up from where I was laid on my side, but that only caused my eyes to water at the pain that grew tenfold. All I could remember was standing in front of the High Fae Queen, watching the prisoner draw back his bow with poison laced on his arrows. Then, I turned around and stood in front of the queen to protect her with everything I had, Kayne's yell echoing in my ears, before I opened my eyes to this room.

I could tell I was still in the castle from the grand bed I had awoken in, it was nothing like I had ever rested in before. It could hold at least three people, curtains of embroidered lace hung down from the posters that held up its canopy, and the sheets were made of silk that had to be worth a large sum. A mirror leant against the wall beside me, showing me my ashen skin and the deep circles beneath my eyes. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought I was dead.

Pushing myself to try to sit up again, I noticed that the bedsheets behind me had been stained crimson from the wound on my back. I could only pray that I wouldn't have to pay for those damages.

My head spun as I finally sat comfortably amongst the pillows that I used to prop myself up. Surprisingly, the wound didn't feel as bad once I was upright. I helped myself to a glass of water from the pitcher that had been left on the bedside table, hoping to remove the dryness and lingering metallic taste inside of my mouth.

As I rested my head back against the pillows, closing my eyes, I could only think about the ball. Was everyone okay? Kayne, Auron, the queen. They had to be, I wouldn't accept anything else. I hadn't seen Trik in the ballroom amongst the other injured guests, so I assumed he had gotten to safety. He was more than capable of taking care of himself.

I forced my breathing to deepen, allowing me to try and get used to the discomfort that was bothering me. Lying around would do me no good, I needed to find out if they were okay for myself. Though, when I made an attempt to move, my muscles and limbs refused to budge.

I supposed I wouldn't find any answers if I wasn't physically able to go get them.

Just before I was about to get some more rest, a soft click sounded, followed by a muffled creak. My eyes shot open to turn towards the door, but it remained closed, no medic or person in sight to see me. So what had made that noise?

Footsteps coming from my right drew my attention and made my heart pulse with fear. Stepping out of a section in the wall — bricks that had seemed to mysteriously disappear to reveal a doorway — was a man dressed in the same black suit he wore the evening he had ensued chaos across the ball. The prisoner.

I frantically searched around me in the hope of a weapon or anything of the sort to defend myself with, but there was nothing. Now, he had finally come to end me and I could do nothing to stop it. I was bed bound, in no shape to run away, and helpless. This wasn't how I wanted to go.

The prisoner held his hands up in surrender, noting my panicked actions. "I'm not here to hurt you, I only want to talk. I promise."

"After you threatened to kill me and then shot me? I'm not very inclined to trust you." Calling the guards now would be pointless. He would just step back into the passage he had come through and escape again.

I had never thought that there would be secret passages hidden within these walls. The castle was centuries old and had been designed by the same fae who had created the tower, I had been foolish to think that there wouldn't be.

Before he had shot me, the prisoner had mentioned that the High Fae Queen had done some terrible things to Icrodeia. So, could I even trust Racaea anymore? Well, the ruler of it anyway.

"You have my apologies, I have an appearance to keep up. We need everyone to think that there could be no chance of an alliance between us to keep them off of our tails." He placed his hands behind his back and frowned at his surroundings.

"An alliance?" Was he insane? I almost scoffed with laughter at the idea, the only thing stopping me was the wound searing me. "After what you've done, I don't think there's even a fleck of hope of an alliance between us."

"Ah, but we both have things the other person wants." There was a regal air about the prisoner as he began to leisurely pace back and forth in front of the passage's entrance.

"And what are these things?" If I could stall him long enough, perhaps there would be someone who would check up on me. A nurse, Kayne, Auron, Trik. Anyone. They could help save me from this predicament. What was I supposed to do? If I didn't follow through with this alliance, what would he do with me?

"You can... easily access what Icrodeia is after, and I have the answers you're looking for."

That I could easily access? What was Icrodeia after? Was it something in the blacksmiths? My mind came up blank every time I tried to figure out what he wanted. "What answers? Is it about why Icrodeia is attacking and what they want back?"

"No, no. Though, that mystery may be solved too if you join me. I may have overheard a conversation you had on a balcony last night, something about a Sephiran couple? About your parents?" He paused his pacing to look at me in the eyes, a sickly sweet smile below them. "I know more than anyone about that topic."

"And why would a scoundrel like you know a lot about my parents?" He had almost confirmed that they were indeed my parents. It was more information than I had gotten in the days spent in the archives.

The prisoner shrugged. "They were famous people in Icrodeia at the time of your departure from our lands."

Perhaps I could use him to my advantage and only pretend to have an alliance with him, just to get information out of him to help Racaea. There were so many things we needed answers for now. What were they after? How did he escape the tower? How had he and the rest of his entourage managed to discover the passages around the castle? It was endless. Now, he claimed he had answers about my parents too.

Trik had mentioned he would look into the Sephirans himself using someone he knew, but would using the prisoner be quicker? If they were famous people, perhaps they wouldn't be too difficult to find. Was the man standing before me even telling the truth?

When I didn't speak after a short period of time, the prisoner brought it upon himself to fill the silence. "It's a shame you grew up in Racaea. Icrodeia would have loved you and you would have loved our kingdom too, I'm sure of it."

A twinge of sorrow found its way to my heart, but I tried my best to ignore it. He was purposefully trying to manipulate me into joining him, I couldn't fall for his blatant tricks. "What is it that I can easily access? What are you after? If you tell me, I might be a little more persuaded to help you out."

Victory flickered in his expression for a brief moment before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. "Well, it's a little more complex than you may think. You-" The prisoner stopped as he heard footsteps coming down the hallway, causing him to curse colourfully under his breath.

Was someone actually coming to my room? Would they be able to find the prisoner and capture him again?

"My name is Mace," he began explaining as he stepped back into the passage he had come from. "We'll talk again as soon as I've decided on a place. If you need to talk to me sooner, write my name on a piece of paper and put it high up on a tree outside of the castle walls. I'll find it."

Before I could question him further or try to stall him so that he might be seen, Mace closed the section in the wall, leaving me alone once more. I scanned the passage entrance for any sign of there being a door there, any way of opening it, but there was nothing. Not even a faint line of where the door was.

A knock rapped on the actual door to the room before it opened, revealing Kayne with confusion and relief on his face. "You're awake," he sighed, walking over to sit on the edge of the bed. The prince's hand found mine, convincing himself that I was real and not a figment of his imagination. "Who were you just talking to?"

I raised a brow, attempting to match his own puzzled expression. "I wasn't talking to anyone." If I wanted to get information out of Mace, I would have to gain his trust. The prisoner was smart enough not to tell me everything without knowing I was completely on his side, I was sure of it. That meant, as much as I loathed to do so, not getting Kayne involved. Or anyone else, for that matter.

Kayne shook his head as if to clear his mind, then smiled softly. "I must be hearing things. How are you feeling? Are you in too much pain?"

"I feel like I've been shot with an arrow," I stated. With Mace having entered and left through a secret passage through the wall, I had almost forgotten all about the pain in my back. The adrenaline and fear coursing through me had done the trick to take my mind off of it. "But the pain is manageable."

"I'm sorry. I never should have brought you into this." His fingers tightened around mine. "You would be a lot safer right now if I had never agreed for you to become my fiancé. War is a matter for soldiers and royals, not for my friends."

"I would have gotten myself involved at some point anyway. Besides, it's my choice as to whether I want to take part in this war, it's not your fault. I want to be by your side as this war now inevitably rises and falls." My hand squeezed his too, making his eyes — now a deep shade of pine — look into mine from where they stared at the blood-stained bedsheets I sat on.

"If you say so." Kayne slouched to relax but then winced in pain, forcing himself to sit tall again.

"Are you injured too? What happened?" Just because I saw him alive in front of me didn't mean he was perfectly okay. I wanted to kick myself as I hadn't noticed his discomfort sooner.

"It's just a small wound," he assured. "The prisoner used one of his arrows to get me off of him when I tackled him to the ground." At my scrunched brows as I tried to search my mind for what had happened after I had been shot, Kayne asked, "how much do you remember from last night?"

"Everything up until I got shot. What happened after that? Is everyone okay? Trik and Auron?" If something had happened to them, if they had been harmed beyond repair, there was no way I could even pretend to form an alliance with Mace.

"Trik is fine. Auron was knocked out by the Icrodeians, but he's fine too. A few guests were injured when the chandeliers fell down, but nobody died."

I sighed in relief. "Good."

"After you were shot," he continued, "the guards finally arrived and attempted to arrest the Icrodeians, but not a single one was captured. They all managed to get away."

We sat for a moment, allowing ourselves to take everything in. Both of us had come close to death, but we had survived. That was an amazing feat, even if it was overshadowed by the fact that the war situation was no better off.

My eyes kept straying to the wall where the prisoner had arrived and vanished again, as I was expecting him to burst out again at any moment. "Are there secret passages in this castle?" I couldn't stop the question from leaving my mouth.

"Not that I know of. Why do you ask?"

I scrambled my mind for an excuse. "That might be how the Icrodeians entered so easily. I can't think of any other way as to how they would have done so."

"I'll look into it." Kayne let go of my hand and shuffled further onto the bed, closer to me. "That may have been how they escaped so easily too."

"What do we do now? Icrodeia didn't care about Racaea having a queen from their own kingdom, so now there's going to be a war, right?" Considering the attack from the previous night, had it already started?

"I'm hoping there won't be a war per se as they only seem interested in taking out my mother and I so far, and I don't want to attack Icrodeia either. I'm planning to send out a regiment to subtly patrol the border." Kayne dragged a hand over his face as he thought. "The prisoner and his group are already in Racaea, but we can stop more from coming in."

I nodded in agreement. "That's a smart move, but what are we going to do about the group that is already in Racaea?" Once I started thinking about how much there was to solve, I couldn't stop myself from asking question after question. "And what about our engagement? Your mother isn't going to let us stay together now after what happened. Is Lady Lorella still in the castle? And what about-"

"Hey, slow down." Kayne leant forwards to cup my cheek with his hand, making me lose all memory of what I was going to say. I couldn't force myself to look him in the eyes. "I don't know what we're going to do just yet, but I'll figure something out. For now, you should get some rest."

"We'll figure something out together," Auron announced from the doorway, making the two of us jump and grimace at the pain it caused our wounds. How had I not seen him standing there?

"When did you get there?" Kayne asked, looking ready to swat the weaponsmith over the head for giving us such a fright.

"Only a few minutes ago." Auron stepped into the room instead of lingering in the doorway. "I wish I could stay for longer, and I hope you're doing alright, Sabre, but the queen has decided to use me as an errand boy." A vein in his jaw twitched at the notion. "Your mother would like to speak with you Kayne, Lady Lorella is there too."

Was the High Fae Queen replacing our engagement already? It hadn't even been a full day yet since the ball had taken place.

Kayne retook my hand and squeezed it before standing from the bed, making his way to the door. "I'll fill you in on the details as soon as I can." With a longing look back towards me, he stepped out into the hallway, Auron following close behind after he gave me a warming smile.