Kai

The cell was completley dark when Unwin returned.

The trip to Madeo was never a long one, only a night's worth of travelling, so I assumed he had returned from his assignment from my father. He walked to the front of my cell and squatted down, looking at me.

"Why are you here?" I asked him, my voice cracking from the overwhelming mass of emotions exploding in my chest. This man killed Dax. This man had Dax's blood on his hands.

Unwin stayed silent, swaying on his toes.

"Was killing him not good enough for you?!" I yelled. "Did you feel the need to come down here and rub it in my face that you killed the boy I love?!"

I sank back into the wall, and curled up into myself as tight as I could manage.

Dax was gone and there was nothing left for me to live for. If I died, James would be the next in line for king and perhaps my father would be more satisfied with him rather than me. Perhaps James could succeed in ways I never could.

"Please, Unwin. Kill me too. Let me be with Dax." I begged him, praying he would have mercy on me.

"I didn't kill him." Unwin whispered.

"What?" I asked, unsure if I had heard him correctly.

"I didn't kill Dax. I couldn't bring myself to. You were right. He didn't even fight back, just took every single thing I threw at him." Unwin shuddered at the thought and sat down with his head against the bars. "He was too kind. I can't kill someone that is as kind as he was."

It felt as if my heart had exploded in my chest. Dax was alive and I still had the chance to see him.

But a piece of his confession stuck with me.

"What did you do to him?"

He stayed silent, shoving his scalp further into the bars as if he could push the memory of what he had done out of his head.

"Unwin, please."I begged, shuffling forward to the best of my ability.

He raised his head to look at me, his eyes were blank and tired.

"I tried to kill him." He whispered. "I tried to kill him, just as I was told to do."

It seemed that I did not need any more information than that. I knew what men like Unwin did to the people he had been paid to kill, they were ruthless, and that aggression had been inflicted onto Dax.

"Unwin, you have to get me out of here." I scooted close, as far as the metal connecting me to the wall allowed. "I have to go to him. I have to protect him."

But the man stayed silent, shaking.

"Please." I whispered, my lip trembling. "You saw him, he is nearly helpless on his own."

Unwin and I sat across from one another, doused in silence as if someone had planned to set the quiet on fire with searing words. But they never came. The anger I knew I needed to feel dissipated with the light of Dax's condition, and I knew that Unwin was my only chance at escaping to Madeo.

His hands gripped the bars and he pulled his body up, rolling his shoulders back and putting on a facade of confidence. His eyes cracked open to meet mine, and I almost immediately knew what was to come.

"By commands of King Bartram, I am to make certain that you are secure in the dungeons below the castle of Grohera and to leave immediatley afterwards where I will face punishment for my crimes against the great kingdom." He began the task of unlocking the cell door with trembling fingers. "Forgive me, my prince, but I serve my king in order to live another day. We all have those we care about and I am only doing what I must to save them."

I opened my mouth to argue, but stopped. He was justified in his reasoning. I would do that same for those that I love. So I did as I was told, holding still as he secured the gag and checked the binds around my sore wrists. The energy to fight had left my body and as he stepped back, I slumped against the wall behind me and dragged my eyes to meet his.

"I am so very sorry, Kai. I pray that one day we will meet under better circumstances."

Unwin gave a sad look as he turned to leave the cell. He seemed to slump forwards as his feet shuffled out and further and further away, until I was left alone once again.

I found myself straining against the metal around my wrists and biting against the cloth in my mouth, but my attempts we futile, as expected.

My eyes fluttered closed and my body relaxed against the stone wall, exhausted from the day of worry and fear, and I slowly drifted into a restless sleep.

<>

A whisper in the darkness pulled me from the momentary peace that sleep offered, and I cracked my weary eyes open to find the source of the gentle noise.

James stood outside of the cell, staring at my bruised and bloodied body with horror etched into his face. His hand trembled and the light from the candle he held shook and made shadows dance across the walls.

"Kai?.." He asked gently, almost unsure of who he was looking at underneath all the crimson red blood and discolored skin.

I didn't want to move, I didn't want to put myself through any further pain and torment. The only thing I could bring myself to want, was peace. But I knew I had to fight, I had to defy the odds and spite my father.

I was unable to make any words due to the cloth shoved in my mouth, so I gave him a weary nod, praying that he would understand.

"Don't worry," He told me with determination in his eyes. "I am going to get you out of here."

He pulled a set of keys from his pocket and set the candle on the floor next to him so he was able to fumble with the metal until he unlocked the door. His hands trembled as he neared me, almost as if he were afraid of what he would find the closer he got.

James took the knot at the back of my head into his fingers and tugged at the cloth until it fell away, pulling some of my long hairs along with it. I stretched my sore jaws for a moment before speaking.

"This was a mistake, James. You should not have come down here." I scolded him as he twisted another key into the metal around my wrists. "What will father do once he realizes that you have freed me?"

He shook his head and held my shoulder, keeping me up while I gathered my senses.

"You don't understand, Kai." He gave a hopeful smile and helped me to my feet. I slung my arm over his shoulder where he held it tight, supporting my weight, and he began to make the journey up and out of the dark room. "There is no need to worry about him."

I opened my mouth to respond, to spill out the hundreds upon hundreds of questions that I had for him, but my head spun and I found myself stumbling forwards due to the lack of water and food over the time I had been down in the cell.

"Stop worrying. I will explain everything when we get you up to your bedchamber." He assured me, as we pushed through the wooden door and back into the well lit portion of the castle.

I squinted and blinked, trying to shake away the headache I felt coming on. My entire body felt heavy and fatigued, and all I wanted to do was collapse in my bed and sleep. But voices shot back and forth above my head, preventing me from focusing on anything. I held onto James tighter and I grew more and more disoriented at the foreign sounds invading my mind.

I attempted to block them out, to shun them from my headspace to try and gain some footing among this chaos, but one sentence left me frozen to the spot.

"Prepare Prince Kai for his coronation, the king is on his deathbed."