I don't see Renit for the rest of the day. When he returns to his chambers, I'm already asleep, and the door is locked before I can get across the hall. I want to know what happened after I left and I want to talk to him about what will happen next. If there's a way for us to spare lives of innocents in the mines, then I want to do it.

Too many lives go to waste already and we can't lose anymore if this kingdom plans on staying afloat. With soldiers off to war, witches slaughtered in the streets, and slaves murdered around every corner, the number of witches left to sustain the future is little-all to come for Silas's reign. Unless that's the king's plan, to wipe out any bit of hope before it's taken away.

I find Renit's door unlocked the next morning when I'm dressed early and ready for a full day of training. And voices hum through the inside, from the wooden door. Relief spreads through me as the lock clicks but that sense is quickly ripped from me, my heart torn from my chest. I stop, my hand gripping so tight onto the knob I might break it off. There is Renit, sitting on a stool in the middle of the room-his back to me. And Hallie, standing in front of him, talking low.

Her whispering stops when she sees me. I'm frozen in the doorway, staring at Renit's back. He was whipped. After I left, the king whipped him. Streams of dried, caked blood cover a layer over the tattoos on his back and the red gashes are still dark and muddled against his skin. I clamp a hand over my mouth and bile sours my cheeks.

Whipped. Because of me. Because my power is too weak. Renit turns to look at me, his eyes cold, and a sob breaks loose from my throat at his black eye. The king beat him. His son, the prince.

They're both watching me as I sink back into the hall and bound down the stairs. I don't know how fast I'm moving or how I'm even able to make step after step when my knees threaten to buckle. Renit calls after me and footsteps follow, echoing off the stone walls in this confined stairway. I need to get out of here. My chest clenches and relaxes and breathing becomes difficult.

As I reach the bottom stair, ready to run, Renit grabs my arm from behind and pushes my back against the wall.

His hands wrap entirely around my forearms as he told tight and forces me to stare at his chest. I won't look at him, I will not. I will not look at his black eye or the wounds covering his back. I won't.

"Look at me," he growls.

I shake my head and lock my eyes onto the floor, on our boots. "No," I croak.

Hallie's heels click down the stairs a moment later. When she sees the battle I won't win, she says, "I'll give you two a minute."

"I'll summon you when I'm ready." Renit gives her a nod as she departs back down the hall, hips swaying as she goes.

Renit yanks me back up the stairs, forcing me to stare at his torn up back instead of allowing me to walk in front. He keeps a tight grip on my wrist, forcing the titanium band to dig farther and farther into my skin until it's burning and the tears in my eyes aren't just from the guilt but from the pain.

The door slams behind us once I'm in his chambers. He walks over to me, takes both of my shoulders, and sits me on the edge of his bed. My hands are shaking, my entire body is shaking, and I still can't find enough air in my lungs. Every breath is one I can't complete.

"Look at me," he orders again.

When I shake my head, whimpering quietly, he grabs my chin and forces me to look at his face. His hand is trembling around my skin and I realize he's afraid-of what I might think. I take a shuddered breath and reach up to brush my fingers along the swollen and bruised skin around his eye. He sighs and closes those glistening silver eyes as my hand drags back down to his split lip; Hallie had barely gotten the chance to apply a glistening salve against it before I burst in.

"Why?" I whimper.

He takes a deep breath. "Because this is what happens when I fail. After all this training, we have nothing to show for it. And he was angry." His voice is so gentle and so quiet that I wonder if he's keeping it low so the king himself doesn't hear. Eyes and ears linger, in the darkest of alcoves.

With a shaken thumb, he wipes a stray tear from my cheek. "That is my punishment to take. Not yours." I shake my head against the grip he keeps.

"No, that is my punishment because he is my father. I won't let him punish you, I won't let him punish Celestine, I won't let him punish anyone but me. I take those punishments."

I release a shaken breath, and he unclasps his hand around my chin. But he doesn't move away. Those three separate tattoos, the lines covering him, twist together in a complicated yet simple dance routine.

"Let me see your back," I say quietly.

Without arguing with me, he turns slowly and allows me to take in what is left of his once perfect skin. A shuddered sob breaks loose from my throat at the wounds up close. Some gashes are small, others are not. The blood has dried against his skin, likely after the many baths it took to stop the bleeding and clean himself off.

I run my fingers over the dried wounds, and he stiffens. "I'm still sore," he grunts through gritted teeth.

"Sorry." I let my hand drop back down to my lap. The king whipped him. I can't process what I'm seeing, the wounds and the pain Renit is dealing with. While I was soundly sleeping, he was whipped and beaten beyond belief and I wasn't there to help him through it.

I wasn't there to clean him up or help him into the tub the way he was there for me as my body adjusted to the Grounding ability. No, he went through the torture all alone and didn't think twice about telling anyone he was in his chambers, in pain.

"Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you have someone heal you?" I ask. I wipe at my nose with the back of my hand and Renit grimaces. He'll be the first one to tell me to use my manners.

He sits down next to me on the bed, sifting the mattress enough for the frame to squeak. With a slouch, he rests his forearms on his knees and allows a decent view of his stretched back. Each move he makes is slow as he adjusts the sore muscles from tensing all night long. I couldn't imagine watching that unfold-watching as he struggled to stay conscious. The whip brought down, again and again, by his father's hand. I do my best to keep my eyes on his instead of the wounds plaguing him. Wherever he slept, it must not have been in this bed because there is no blood. Or he bandaged the wounds himself until Hallie arrived and healed them with her abilities.

"There are available healers in the castle," Renit begins, staring at the floor. "My father knows that. So, along with these punishments, I have to wait until morning to heal the wounds so I can...suffer. This routine is just part of being a prince."

My eyebrows raise involuntarily. "Silas goes through this too?"

"Not necessarily because he's the crown prince, it's different with him."

I shake my head violently, tears pricking at my eyes again. A lump forms in my throat and I try to shove it back down but there's too much pain welling up for me to have control. "It's not different. The king is singling you out, he's doing this to you and only you. Your father wants to hurt you."

Renit snarls at me. Even with the black eye and wounded back, he is still intimidating to look at. That bit of disappointment flashing out against me is difficult to face. "I serve my purpose," he grovels. "And sometimes, that purpose is twisted. I am his soldier, his weapon, and I must obey those rules." He slowly turns to me, frowning. "You shouldn't care, you have better things to worry about than what I'm going through."

I clench back that want-the want to shake his shoulders and scream at him to open his eyes. He's not seeing the destruction taking place in this castle.

"Fine, I won't worry," I whisper. As soon as I scale that wall to him, he immediately shoves me back down. "I'll get to the kitchens."

I slide off the bed, ready to leave him there to deal with his own steaming rage when he grabs my hand. "Will you stay?"

"Renit, I don't-"

"Just stay while Hallie heals me. Then you can go." His fingers fall through mine, a touch gone too soon, and I find myself longing for that trace. After all the cold nature he's shown me, warmth is in that touch and I want to explore it and feel the lightning with it. But that cannot happen, Renit is part of the reason my parents are dead, he is the one that wished me dead.

Instead of shoving him away farther than he's already managed, I nod and sit next to him on the bed, farther than I was before. He summons for Hallie who appears minutes later and quietly works on his wounds. I hold her supplies as she cleans up the dried blood with wipes that cause Renit to wince from an inevitable sting.

Once his back is cleaned, she stitches the wounds together with that white light of hers, the angelic power saving Renit from another day of wearing those wounds like a prize. Hallie works quickly and before long, Renit's back is smooth again and the tattoos twist as smoothly as they once had; before the whip came down.

I run my fingers over the smooth surface as she works on his eye and split lip. None of us speak because there are no words that need to be said, and it's not until Hallie bids her farewell, leaving with hardly a glance in my direction, that I apologize for not trying hard enough.

From now on, I won't care about the pain. I won't because I know that after what I've received, Renit will face a much harsher fate.