Renit whirls his stare, a flame rising in his eyes. He hasn't displayed that look with me in months; it's a silent signal telling me to stop speaking—right now. But he cannot speak, for his father won't allow it. He's said his piece and Renit's words, no matter how fruitful, are done.

Upon hearing my voice, Akeno manages the strength to look over at me, past his hunched shoulder. He's still shaking, blood dribbling from his lips along with any spit he doesn't have the strength to swallow. It's likely they choked the air out of his lungs and damaged the airways in his throat, rendering him unable to complete the simple act of swallowing.

Instead of giving the king another reason to believe we were part of this plan, I don't meet Akeno's eye and stare straight ahead, even as all attention turns to me. Renit's cold determination doesn't leave his eyes when he looks at me, silently ordering to return to my post next to Silas and Hallie. But I will not rescind my offer; I want to be the one the king uses.

He looks me up and down like I'm nothing more than a useless child. To him, I might as well be. I don't carry the same strength or bulk as Renit and I definitely haven't trained to fight the deadliest targets in the kingdom as the prince has. We are two different sides to the coin but if the king wants someone who will not fight the potion; I am his best bet.

That's what he's considering as he doesn't speak. He knows more than anyone that his son will fight this but with the look I give him, a silent promise to bend the knee, he has a better option with finding a warrior somewhere inside my heart.

"For amusement purposes, why would I choose a weak girl over my own son?" The king asks. His dark eyes rove over my face and search deep into my soul. I shiver against their attention.

"Because I was the one that constructed the plan. I was the one that orchestrated it with the rebels because I wanted a different leader on the throne. Renit was a ploy—he did nothing wrong," I explain quickly.

"Roux," Renit growls. He stares at the floor in defeat. "If you don't stop speaking—"

"Is that true?" The king asks Akeno.

The rebel looks up at the both of us, panting. One of his eyes is swollen shut, and the other is bloodshot, red leaking into the whites against his dark brown eyes. They once held such innocence and care for the people around him and now, he's as good as a ghost if the king has anything to say about it. Akeno won't be leaving this throne room; that I know.

Akeno, swallowing down his pain, nods with a quick dip of his chin. Even underneath the influence of titanium, his power doesn't want to lie. He's been born not to lie so under any circumstance does he avoid it.

"That still doesn't give me a solid reason why I should use you instead. You're weak, young, and hardly a threat compared to my son. I trained him to be the monster he is today." The king puffs out his chest in pride. But pride is not love, neither is the training Renit received. He is not a monster and he never will be. In his father's eyes, Renit puts up that shield and wears that mask to make himself appear ordinary underneath royalty standards.

There's so much more in his heart I want to learn. So much more the world needs to know, and the king, to understand his son. It's not fair. Renit's life was never fair.

Standing up straighter, I dig my nails into my palms and relish in the pain. This is nothing compared to what is coming. "I won't fight the potion. Renit will. Use me instead and you might get the warrior you're looking for."

Breaking from the scared trance the king has put him in, Renit whirls around and grips my shoulders. Hard. To my surprise, my hands move on their own accord and shove against his chest. The prince, startled, stumbles back and doesn't attempt to come at me once more. The look in my eye is enough for him to back down, no matter how much it kills him to do so. His nostrils flare in silent challenge, whether against his father or me, I'll never receive that answer. If these are our final moments...it breaks my heart to think I'm behaving this way towards him.

The scar on the king's jaw stretches when he grins at me. "Of course, with my blood, you inherit my warrior abilities. The truth being, you don't need the strength of a prince, but the stealth of a killer..." His voice trails off as he considers. "You're small, but you'll do."

"You can't do this," Silas and Renit blurt at the same time. Both princes face their father with no sense of respect to the throne.

He looks between the two of them, boredom flashing in his eyes. "I don't need you," he grovels to Renit. Upon turning to Silas, he jerks his chin at one of the guards. "But I need the crown prince. Guards, remove Princess Hallie from the premises and restrain both the princes. Now."

Renit is already moving to attack his father, fear lancing in his eyes, when one guard moves too quickly to calculate. They wrap a titanium shackle around the prince's wrist at the same time the first rock of thunder slams against the side of the castle. And the last bit of thunder I'll hear.

I take a deep breath, inhaling the smell of Renit's rain and blink away the tears. Alone in the middle of the throne room with Akeno at my side, I feel more like my parents than myself. They were in this position before and I promised my mother I would make him pay for the things he did. Too bad I won't be here to do it.

Renit thrashes, fighting against the guards that hold him down. Binx doesn't move a muscle, his orders haven't come yet. Bone cracks as the prince delivers an elbow to the face of a guard, prompting more to come into the room to restrain him. "No!" He shouts, his voice strangled, eyes finding mine. I've never seen such fear. But I force myself to look away.

They drag both princes off to the side, Silas putting up less of a fight but still struggling as Hallie too, screams and thrashes against the mighty tug of those trying to remove her. Any fight she puts up is nothing compared to the hard order of a king, standing taller than any of those guards will ever reach.

"Roux, you have to run," Renit pleads. He yanks and tugs against the titanium chains but in return, the guards hold in the other direction. They force the prince to his knees, Silas the same as he looks around the room and searches for any way out of this. But there won't be one. This is it. This is the end.

"It'll be all right," I lie. I force myself to smile, even as a single tear falls down my cheek and crests against my jaw. "I'll see you on the other side."

Renit shakes his head wildly. When he realizes I won't do anything to stop this, not even with the available power at my fingertips, Renit turns to his last option. The king. "Father, please. You can't do this. You can't do this to her," he laments. He still tugs on those chains as if the six guards holding him down will suddenly slip loose of their control.

"I remember a time when you couldn't stand to be around each other," the king muses. He circles me, pushing back the scarlet strands of my hair so they're off my neck. I flinch against his touch and the iron smell of him that comes along with his taste for blood. "Have you a change of heart, my son?"

"You know what happened to Darlene and Oisin. Don't do that again, don't risk the loss of another princess." It's all he can think to say, to change his father's mind, but it won't do. The king already has it set in stone that this will not change, no matter how much Renit pleads.

"She's too young!" Silas shouts. "This will kill her."

The king shrugs, twisting the bottle in his grip. "If she's strong enough that won't be a problem. Regarding Darlene, it's your fault she's dead, son. We never really needed another, just a Grounding when your foolish power turned against you. Roux is simply an...experiment." His eyes brighten with enthusiasm.

Renit tugs on the chains one last time, earning him a kick in the shin. He lets out a cry of pain, huffing through his teeth, as sweat pools against his forehead. He's been fighting for too long, not only today but since the day he was born. And I'm hoping that with this, he'll get the break he needs to live a somewhat happy life. All I can hope is that I'll see him on the other side.

"If I do this," I say, "You must do something for me."

The king arches a brow at me. "And what do you have in mind, young witch? Frankly, I can pour this potion down your throat and you could do nothing about what happens next." For emphasis, he swirls the contents along the sides of the glass vial once more.

"If I do this for you, Renit is not to die. You banish him. That is all."

The glance the king offers in his son's direction doesn't result in any kind of care. After three hundred years of training and raising Renit to be the prince he is today, the king doesn't have a shred of want towards his blood-related son. Nothing. No love. Only fools work in ways of love as I am now. But if being a fool is what it takes to give me the confidence to do this and save Renit's life, I'll gladly be one. 

Turning back to meet my eye, our stares lock. My eyes obey the king. "We have a deal," he agrees.

I turn my head to Renit, studying that handsome face one last time. He mouths the word please over and over again, his arms flung back behind him as he continues to tug. My prince. Renit is my prince. And I can't use my power in fear of bringing down this entire castle and killing him when what I'm trying to do is spare his life. This is the best I can give him.

So instead of shedding any more tears, I swallow the lump in my throat and release a shaken breath. "It'll be all right," I say once more. "We'll get through this and I'll see you on the other side."

"Don't say that, Roux," he snaps. The chains rattle as he gives a firm yank. "This isn't over."

"For now, it is. But we'll find our way back, I promise."

"Don't." His pleading is barely a whisper but my heart shatters into pieces that won't undergo repairs in the coming days, weeks, or months.

One last tear slides down my cheek, and I whisper the only thing I have left for him. "I love you. I love you and even if I don't remember that I love you on the other side, I'll know it in my heart." My voice breaks, cracking against the confession, and Renit's fight turns into an all-out desperation to get to me.

He screams, grunting to get away as the shackles dig into his wrists and draw blood. Kneeling next to him, Silas is motionless, but he stares at me with tears in his eyes.

"Take care of him for me, please," I say to him. The crown prince nods, his final promise to a young witch, too young to be experiencing these things. But I will do it for Renit because at this point in his life, when he was merely eighteen, he was already fighting for survival.

The king steps towards me, his warmth leaking in like a sticky pool of blood. Akeno doesn't move, neither does Binx, and the only one willing to fight this is Renit. I stare at him the entire time, my prince, the witch I love, as the king tips my head back and the warm, vile liquid slides down my throat.