My dress sizzled as it melted into the skin of my back. The fire serpentined up my spine, slithering with excruciating slowness between each and every vertebrae. There was screaming everywhere, a piercing female scream.

My scream.

And then there was another - deeper, like a roar.

From the corner of my whited out vision I saw Rhysand lunge toward me, toward Eris, when a wall of power slammed him back, pinning him to the ground. I tried to reach for him, but my muscles were gone beneath the pain flooding every vessel and sinew in my body. I was caged, helpless. Eris had trapped me here, in my greatest pain - my greatest fear.

He'd freed me only to destroy me eternally, to bind me in torture.

Somewhere beneath the surging well of electric pain I felt my power building with rage, begging to be released, but I couldn't focus. I couldn't grasp it. I couldn't wield my own strength.

I was helpless.

The fae at my back disappeared in my mind as the flame that grew closer and closer to my neck took up all my attention. Small pools of blood rose around my fingers where my nails dug into the rock below. If I was breathing between my deafening screams, I couldn't tell.

"Oh, Eris," I heard from another female voice. It was so familiar, but felt so far away. "I really think she was beginning to like you."

Eris didn't speak.

"Tsk tsk. Really Tamlin -" but then the voice was cut off.

And then the fire stopped.

I collapsed from my hands and knees onto the cold, hard floor, sure that the impact would leave me with blood on my temple. But as the agony of my exposed back quieted ever so slowly, I saw the brawl behind me.

Tamlin was on top of Eris and sure enough, he had claws. He'd sliced across Eris' cheek so deep, he'd surely be disfigured forever. To the side, Rhysand was rising despite the wall of magic still visibly pushing him back. His face was crumpled into a hateful grimace, veins popping from his neck and forehead as he rose until something snapped and he flew to Eris.

"You've got to be joking," the voice, Amarantha, said rising from her seat. "She is worthless and you're willing to go this far for what? Her honor?" Her nostrils flared, a scowl warping her once beautiful features. "I will kill her. She is NOTHING."

And then Tamlin and Rhys stopped attacking Eris. They turned together, the most unlikely team I'd ever seen, and faced Amarantha. Fury lit their faces, their rage palpable. The surrounding fae were silent and some had even begun to near the exits. The two High Lords' steps were slow, intentional. Neither looked very shaken by Eris, as if he hadn't even bothered to fight back.

Amarantha cackled, a cruel, wicked noise that echoed through the great hall. She opened her mouth just as Tamlin launched himself at her. She threw out her power, slamming him into the rock right when Rhysand came close enough to strike her before she tossed him aside as well. She raised a hand above her head, a sadistic smile spreading across her face as she turned her gaze to mine.

A force slammed into me.

Amarantha, I was sure. She was going to kill me. I was going to die here, at the feet of a monster. But the force wasn't magic - it was solid. Then a second blow hit and I realized it was a body. Someone had covered me from a blast, their presence a savior and a torture as their clothes buried into the open flesh of my back.

"I'm going to KILL YOU ALL!" Amarantha vowed, shouting her voice loud enough for every fae Under the Mountain to hear her vow. She took quick, pounding steps toward where my brother stood in front of me and only then did I realize it was Tamlin who held me. Tamlin had saved me from Amarantha's wrath. She steamed ahead, drawing up one hand, ready to unleash death upon us.

I braced myself. And for a moment, despite the pain, I let myself press into Tamlin. Somewhere deep beneath my burns, the mating bond was soothed in the furthest, most unreachable regions of my poor, broken heart. I could have almost smiled. If I were to die, I would be glad to have the privilege of dying in my mate's arms.

But I bless all those brave enough to dare…

The whisper in my head was so small in comparison to everything around me I almost didn't hear it at first.

But then I heard it again.

But scorned, I become a difficult beast to defeat…

My panicked eyes met the self righteous glare of the evil commander as she neared Rhysand, a twisted snarling smile on her face.

For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow,

When I kill, I do it slow…

Rhysand stood his ground, even when Amarantha's hand suddenly appeared around his throat.

"Love!" a long forgotten voice screamed.

Amarantha's eyes grew wide.

"The answer to the riddle is love!" And I realized it was Feyre, the human girl watching us from the pit. The girl in love with the male who held my shaking body.

Something fell onto my head.

Tamlin's mask ricocheted off my hair, still somehow in its bun, and fell to the floor beneath us. He stood, peeling himself from my now mostly naked and bloodied body and launched himself toward Amarantha much faster than he had before.

But she was gone.

She'd moved too quickly.

Too quickly for us to stop her when she reappeared in the pit, face to face with Feyre.

"You," Amarantha spat and Feyre's screaming began. Her bones distorted underneath her skin. Her ribs became jagged and her legs folded back and forth, yet still she stood. Blood was beginning to spill from her lips as she struggled for breaths. "I'm going to kill you."

Tamlin ran for her.

But he wasn't fast enough.

Amarantha's hands were barely visible, they were so swift as they reached for each side of Feyre's face and broke her neck in front of us all.

Her lifeless body dropped to the ground, blood flowing freely from her mouth pooling around her face.

"NO!" To my surprise, it was Rhysand who yelled, running toward the pit. However Tamlin was already there.

And he had transformed. A wild beast possessed his body, golden light spewing from his pores.

Warm, he was so warm.

And I was so cold.

"Please," Amarantha whispered before Tamlin attacked, pinning her down with his massive paws. She fought for her life, only for him to take her throat between his powerful animal jaws and rip out her throat.

Just like that.

Amarantha was dead.

And then I watched my mate run to his dead lover's body, scoop her up, and beg all the other High Lord's to save her life for freeing them all. I watched as Feyre was resurrected as fae with the attention of my mate and my brother fixated on her. I watched as she emerged from death, as she stood up with not a scratch on her. Their magic had cleaned the blood from her, healed her wounds inside and out. She was stronger than ever before.

And I was weak.

Weaker than ever before.

I was destroyed, yet I would not be rescued, or resurrected.

I watched faeries of all kinds fuss over the human savior from my place on the floor in front of the dais, still bare from the waist up after Eris destroyed my dress, though some fabric had likely been burned into my skin. The pain was still there, still wild and all-consuming. My body was thrashing, shaking uncontrollably, unable to handle it all - all my pain. My brokenness.

It was too much.

It was all too much.