The dream was back on that snowy day, back in that living room but this time it was dead silent. My mother sat on the couch next to me and I smiled at her.

"Lilly you need to know something." She took my hands in hers and I started at her, committing everything to memory.

"Nearly two hundred years ago, a forbidden love started between an Inibrius queen and an Elf king. They were to be married and unite the land to stop the war that has been going on for centuries. For decades they kept it a secret, meeting under the palace in the tunnels between the lands. Eventually she fell pregnant, and around the same time is when he had fallen ill.

On the day of the Red Eclipse- at the time the moon passed in front of the Sun- their child was born. A child of two worlds, the first one ever heard of born on a powerful day.

The king had died before they could tell the world of their union. And in an attempt to hide her child, she learned that he had been poisoned, that they were coming for her and the child next.

She did the only thing possible, she gave the child to a powerful witch to protect in hopes they'd never find her."

Her eyes filed with tears as she searched my face.

"I'm sorry but I'm not your mother." I pulled my hands away like I had been burned.

Everything that could go wrong was going wrong and I couldn't stand my dreams turning on me too.

Somewhere in my mind I knew she was right... But I couldn't believe her.

"Why would you people lie to me! Is Lillian even my real name?! You're dead and I'm dreaming! Why should I believe you? It's not possible! I'm only twenty three!"

I started pacing in the living room, my brain was working a million miles an hour and I watched her face as it turned down. She was crying and despite all my anger and pain, I ran to her.

"I'm not dead. The Red Eclipse will be back soon and you my dear, will be at war. I'll be waiting."

I couldn't even process her words before I was woken up. Time to start a new day.

*One week of torture later*

Grumbling I grabbed the bucket and walked to the empty ballroom. Not like he ever used it.

Water sloshed over the sides as I set it down ever so gently. Well... that might be an over statement. I grabbed the brush and stated working in circles on the tiles. I had trusted the devil and for what? To spend the next eternity scrubbing an Inibrius's stupid floors? Not paticularly what I had in mind.

"This is like Cinderella gone all wrong." I muttered under my breath and pulled the bucket closer as I made my way over each tile. I knew what would happen if I left the stupid thing on the floor away from me. The room would become a Raging Waters wanna be within minutes and I would still have to work through it.

It was one way to adapt to magic creatures fast.

I listened as I heard footsteps comming from behind me and I knew what was coming. My eternity of tortue began with cleaning and every day I didn't break, then he would step up his game. He liked the fear and pain of others and I wasn't one to give into something so easily.

I recalled the day I got here.

The Inibrius had spent hours torturing me. Cutting, marring, burning and tearing at my body and still I wouldn't give in. He would tell me I was special and he wanted me broken. He wanted me to bow to him. He wanted more than just the soul he took. He wanted my spirit. For each blow he inflicted, I vowed that when I got out I would do ten times worse.

When I stood, I wiped off my hands, the smell of bleach lingering in the air. I turned to face him, ready for the torture of the day. Ready to face the evil demon himself when I froze. My heart nearly stopped at the sight of the reason why I was here. It nearly stopped at the brown hair that was still just as mess and wind blown, the chcolate brown eyes that looked at me without pity. The cruel smile of my own demon was forgotten as I tried to look into the brown eyes that caused me to be here. There was no kindness like before. No friendship. He was never real.

My heart switched between pounding and clenching in a pain I knew would come.

The demons eyes lit up, making the red seem even more terrifying. On the second day he had found some thing to scare me. He had found the one person who made fury and pain boil through my veins. The one who broke my heart before I even knew it.

I turned back to my bucket of now chilled water before going back to scrubing the floor. They stood and watched in silence before I heard whsipering. Whispering I'm sure they knew I could hear, but did that stop them? NO? Gasp! What a shocker.

"I don't think she realizes what's going on yet."

"No. She obviously hasn't read the notes I leave with her breakfast every morning."

I rolled my eyes. Breakfast was whatever he decided to feed me that day and normally it was whatever came to his mind. Believe me, it was a cruel mind indeed.

"Well, maybe we should tell her?"

"Nothing like a good torture session first."

Ignore them... Ignore them and eventually they'll get bored with you.

"Why my dear and mystical little creature, I do believe we asked you a question."

I ignored their voices, moving onto the next patch of tiles. One second I was scrubbing away in my own twisted version of a maid when I was yanked from the floor. The hair in my scalp screamed in protest as he pulled me up by it. I didn't dare whimper, let alone speak. I had refused to talk to him since... well... that's a story for another time. I smacked his hands away from me knowing he'll swing back ten times as hard. My pride was unwilling to cower as he raised his fist. I stood straight when it came towards me, knowing that moving would just cause more pain.

But the hit never came.

I watched as his fist was grabbed by the man standing next to him. He wasn't a man by any standards- more a sad relic of what I once trusted. I didn't dare let the confusion show.

"Now, now friend," His compatriot pulled him back. A sigh escaped my mouth at the relief before I could even register.

"Dear Lilly," His dulcet tone was not lost on me as he stepped forward and stroked my cheek. Something I might have found comfort in if only things were different, "You're going to be taken to the Queen. Pack up... well it won't take long now will it?" He laughed at the cruelty of his own joke and my eyes watered.

I had been here a week and the pain of what Jordan had done grew each day I saw his face next to those who had slayed my family- a whole village. I shook my head as the macabre scene played in my mind. He had been there the whole time.

How did I end up here? Well that bit was a bit fuzzy... There was a sword held to my back. Held there by someone I trusted.

Through the haze I couldn't recall words other than 'I was right' and 'You wont find her'. The world had faded and sucked into itself until I was being thrown into a cold cell, one I returned to every night.

A cell with five others and a horrible smell, bars on one wall and stones for the rest.

Every night he would visit the cell and tell stories of him fooling me while I sat morosely until he left. Jordan had told me stories of how he made me think he was good. The way he pretended to be on my side for the longest time. Mostly, he would tell me the stories of how he forced himself to be interested in a monstrosity like me.

Oh yeah. That burned.

I let the burn of his words fill my heart, never letting the the fire consume me. I had thought "Elves exsist, my family is dead and now my best friend handed me over to the enemy". Always staying until he had left an indelible impression of heart ache and pain in his wake. It didn't seem impossible after everything and eventually it was locked into that box and it would stay there. Over the week I had grown used to it but I was more interested in what the others called me when they thought I couldn't hear.

Ritnyr. A word whisperd among even the prisoners who strayed away from me. I didn't know what it meant and I'd be damned before I asked. But my curiosity couldn't be tamed. Eventually I'd have to ask, if only to speak to someone.

I was even starting to even miss the prince.