My throat closes up, my mind void of all words. What is the right thing to say in a time like this? I've consoled refugees fresh off the loss of their family members. I've told them everything will be all right once they're settled in. We're a family here, although those we love are gone, we can still feel loved by those around us.

Family doesn't always have to be blood, I told them. That was my favorite statement to use, it put many of the younger witches at peace. Although the older and wiser were harder to persuade, they came around eventually when they saw the community we built. No, we didn't have to be blood. We just had to come from the same background-haunting underneath the king's rule.

Even after all that, everything I did to persuade these people they belonged in Arego, I can't find the right thing to say here. Not as Renit blinks, waiting for my response. I've been searching for this information for months now, anxiously giving him the amount of time he needed to explain why the hell he was so punishing towards me.

I never thought much farther than his behavior or what he had gone through. But that name...to hear it be spoken and shared with the world, I realize Renit's gone through much more than what this is worth. The explanation, the heartbreak, reliving what happened.

"Renit, you don't have to-"

"No, it's time." He shakes his head and for a second, closes his eyes. Preparing himself for the battle he has to face.

Darlene.

Darlene.

I didn't know her, nor have I heard her name in the castle. Everyone keeps their secrets hidden, locked away, and nearby-Renit's take up a spot on the shelf.

It's time, then. Renit declared it so. I move to sit next to him, resting my shoulder against the wall and tucking my legs against me. This way he doesn't have to look at me if he doesn't want to, if the memories become too heavy a weight to bear. I want to take some of that burden for myself, I've always had, so I can see who the prince really is underneath the monster his father created.

"Her name was Darlene Chathier Marron. She was my wife," Renit goes on to say. Each word is laced with strain, with regret and I look down at my hands to avoid seeing the visible pain in his eyes. "She was a witch of water and worked as a servant in the castle for time, tending to my tower. After some time, we fell in love. Against my father's wishes...I married her when we discovered she was with child." His face hardens.

My blood runs cold. A wife. Renit was married before this and again, against his father's wishes. He's not as stiff as I believed him to be-always obeying to what his father wants. For Darlene, he did what they wanted and needed, to produce an heir.

Renit swallows before he speaks again. Never once do his eyes meet mine. "His name was Oisin Chathier Marron." With every word, I feel his heart break all over again. A silver sheen casts over his eyes, glistening in the golden candlelight and I resist the urge to wrap myself around him.

Not only did Renit have a wife but a child as well. A child that he produced with the woman he loved. The tip of my nose burns as I swallow down that lump in my throat. But my regret for treating him with disrespect does not come anytime soon, not today or tomorrow. This night belongs to Renit and the story he's been anticipating sharing.

"My life was amazing, Roux. I couldn't come close to comparing it to now, I loved every second of having a family of my own." The back of his skull rubs against the wall as he shakes his head. "I took pride in my son and honored my wife every day for bringing our child into the world and raising him as I would want him to be raised." He hesitates for a moment, as if wondering if he should say more, but continues as my own heart begins to crack. I intertwine my fingers with his, the outer shell of my gold band resting against his skin.

"Through the blindness of a wonderful life, I let the observant prince in me slip. I stopped caring about the world around me because they were my world. And I thought the two of them was all I would ever need-not my father or Silas but them."

I swallow down my nerves and ask the only question I can ask without apologizing profusely. "What happened to them?" My thumb drags along the back of his hand and that's what he draws his shaken attention to.

Renit tries to take a clean, easy breath but the true extent of his mourning is revealed in that one gesture. His chest heaves, shuddering. "Around a hundred years ago, there was a different wave of rebellion. That time, they were stronger, wiser and most of their forces were assassins. One night, they stormed the castle and attempted to slit my father's throat. I was called out to fight against them and urged Darlene to stay there. I posted guards at the bottom of the tower, the strongest I knew, and left to fight for my father's life.

"Apparently, that wasn't enough. They managed to break through and Darlene escaped out into the courtyard, through the battle breaking out. She had Oisin in her arms and they were so close to fleeing." His eyebrows turn inward as he recalls the next few moments. I've never wondered what nightmares he might face, if there's a common occurrence in his dreams.

Darlene and Oisin haunt him daily, not only in his slumber but in the castle. They left their imprint there, in the walls, in his bed, in the courtyard. Renit has tried for a hundred years or so to escape what befell him and turned in circles under the familiar stone walls and marble floors. Even in his crown and his father's throne, he can find them there. That crown and that throne, eventually would have belonged to Oisin.

"They killed Oisin," he croaks. I squeeze his hand tighter. I have to stay strong. For Renit and the family left behind. "It was a quick death but...that doesn't do the act justice. I was too late, even though I ran as fast as I could, I couldn't...Oisin died because I didn't get there in time."

A tear breaks loose from the corner of his eye and with the back of my finger, I wipe it away. "That's not your fault," I say quietly. The dirt on his cheek smears against the tear and with my sleeve, I wipe the rest away.

"I was so angry; my power was so built up that I unleashed my storm before I warned Darlene. She was struck and because of her power...she didn't make it. I killed her, Roux. I killed my wife." He shudders again. "I lost everything in the span of a minute. In that short span of time, everything I loved was gone and I couldn't bring them back, the healers couldn't as much as I screamed at them to please do something for two lifeless bodies."

Breaking the separation between us, needing to do something other than sit there, I brush the dark hairs from his forehead and push them back, threading my fingers through his hair to provide some bit of comfort. He closes his eyes and the next breath he takes is normal. Not laced with agony. "What did you do to the assassins?"

He turns his head to me and pebbles dribble down from the wall where he shifted. I trace my fingers around his ear, distracting myself in the other parts of him, the diverting pieces that won't lead to meeting his eye. I can't will myself to do it, not once I've realized that every battle we faced together was not one fought honorably. Renit lost everything, more than me, more than what my parents would be considered.

When our powers bonded together in Grounding, I saw her. Darlene. The full, sapphire eyes, and curled pecan hair down to her waist. She was beautiful, gentle, soft compared to Renit's hard nature. Even if I didn't know her, I didn't have the privilege to, Renit's love for her radiates off his skin like a cologne.

The same sentence flashes into my mind, over and over again. He doesn't deserve this. He doesn't deserve this.

"I killed them. I gutted them and took their heads. Once I was done, I spiked their heads on the gates so no rebels would ever think of attacking again. That's when...everything changed. I changed, the castle changed. I became a hollow shell that moved day by day, going through the motions without actually thinking of what I was doing. Once again, I was left with nothing. Darlene and Oisin were gone and with them...my life went, too."

I can almost see the boy in his eyes, the young witch. The dark hair, the metallic eyes-a perfect blend of his mother and father. Renit's tough frown but Darlene's luminous smile. The face of innocence and his father's pride.

Renit shudders one last time, and allows the memories to leak from him like an open wound. The knife that went through him was not physical but rather lodged there for a hundred years and recently removed. His wound is seeping with blood, both Darlene's and Oisin's and it's up to me to clean up what is left.

If anything at all.

"I'm sorry, Renit. I'm sorry you had to lose them and I'm sorry for not giving you the respect you deserve," I tell him.

He shrugs but winces against the pain in his shoulder. "There's no way you could have known. I ordered the castle servants and residences to never speak of that night again and they obeyed. But that's my story and one I needed to tell."

My smile is close-lipped but it's one that he mimics. That smile doesn't meet his eyes and I don't expect it to, not for a long time. To mourn someone for a hundred years and expect to spend the rest of his life doing just that...the pain in remembering my parents is not nearly close to what he will face.

"Do you want to sleep?" I inquire.

Without muttering another word, he nods. I help him lay down against the cell floor and once his head is propped by the satchel, his pillow for the night, he pats the side of his chest that isn't injured.

I arch a brow. "Are you sure?"

"Considering you've been the pillow for the past few nights, I think it's time I offered. That's the princely thing to do." He scrunches up his face, all pain gone, and this time, my smile is real.

I curl into him, wrapping my arm across my abdomen and resting my cheek against his chest. Already, warmth seeps through me as his arm drapes around from behind, cupping my waist in his hand.

Renit's warm breath shifts the stray hairs against my forehead and he makes one final adjustment of the satchel before deeming that comfortable for the night.

Throwing caution to the wind, I reach up, cupping the side of his face in my hand and place a kiss near his jaw. The stubble scratches against my palm, a matching sensation against my lips, and Renit's cheeks flush.

"Thank you for telling me." Once my whispered appreciation is shared, Renit smiles down at me.

"Hmm," he grumbles. "Get some sleep."

I stare up at his dark lashes and closed eyes for what feels like hours, but rather minutes, and the steadiness of his breathing echoes against my cheeks. He's asleep and it's time for me to do the same.

Not wanting to let go of the prince that has already lost so much, I tuck myself into him. Renit's presence presses into me, my source of warmth for the night, and I sleep quicker than I have in weeks.

Below is a song dedicated to Renit and Darlene