Clare Beddor was the last straw for me. An innocent girl, who had done nothing wrong in her life to deserve what she had been forced to go through, was hanging above all of us in the throne room. Condemning us for what we had become. Since the night Rhys had shown her mercy and killed her rather than let her go through torture endlessly, I had become more and more defiant. I don't know what thread came loose in me but I didn't care that I spent almost every night in the cells or with Samson. All I knew was we had gone down a road that we would never be able to come back from and Amarantha can go to hell.

Whenever she sent me on a task, I questioned her. Whenever she summoned me, I took my sweet time getting to her. And whenever she ordered me to play executioner, I denied. Each time I defied her, my punishments got worse and worse. I was sure she had talked to Samson to make me pay as well, he had been worse than usual. But all of that didn't matter. For the first time in almost fifty years, I had felt like I was standing up to her. I knew this sort of defiance didn't help anyone, but if it was just one more way for me say 'Fuck you' to Amarantha, then I would gladly do it.

Rhys tried to get me to stop behaving like this and continue our tactics from before, but what he didn't realize or didn't want to realize, was that the time for those games was long gone. Nothing would be like it was before.

This particular evening, I was chained up in Samson's room on his bed. He was taking a break from the consistent beating and fucking and went to the bathroom to clean up, when there was a knock on the door. I didn't bother responding, it wasn't anyone coming for me. The door opened a sliver and a male faerie's head popped in, his green eyes with red irises going wide upon seeing me. Once he took my body and my situation in, he sneered at me derisively. It didn't matter to me, on more than one occasion Samson had me presented in the whole court while in the middle of his affairs. my neck was sore but I managed to turn my head towards him and raise an eyebrow.

"Tell Master Samson that a human," He spit on the ground at that word, "had come claiming to be Lord of the Spring Court's lover. I think he's want to bear witness to the events." He nodded at me, and turned around and left.

No. No! She couldn't have come here, not after all that we sacrificed for her. I knew what she meant to Rhys and how he would feel if she were in this hell. I struggled against my chains, I had to go help! I tried to pull my hands out of the metal cuffs but they were too tight and short of cutting my hand off, I wouldn't be able to take it out. I half raised and looked at the bathroom door by my feet, listening for any signs of him. The water was still running and I could hear him taking his bath. I pulled at my foot, if I angled it to the right… It didn't work. He had cuffed me to his bed thoroughly. I could feel tears running on my temple onto my ears, tickling me, but I paid no attention. Maybe if I dislocated my thumb?

No, don't panic. Think. What can I do? I shut my eyes tightly and focused on the flow my fire towards my cuffs, when I opened my eyes they were burning bright red. I gasped excitedly, this could work! I'd never tried it, the punishment for breaking out was always worse than the punishment I was originally set to receive. I immediately sent a wave freezing air mixed with the water from my tears, straight to my hands and feet. I could hear the metal in the cuffs creaking indicating its brittle state. I raised all my legs and arms so I was resting entirely on my back and brought them all down at the same time with as much strength as I could muster. With a loud sound, my cuffs shattered off me. I paused, still laying on the bed, staring at the bathroom door. I wasn't sure I was even breathing. He had to have heard that. Two seconds passed, five, ten. Nothing. He was still running the water and bathing.

I slowly got up off the bed and walked over to his closet and pulled out a pair of pants and tunic. I turned to the bed and found feathers floating down slowly. On the bed, there were four scorch marks and smoke raising out of them. I had burned through the mattress, straight through the frame and there were four gaping holes where the cuffs on my hands and feet were.

"What," I froze at the cold, hard voice. "do you think you're doing?"

He moved to me in three fast strides and grabbed a hold of my right hand and squeezed so hard, I was sure it was close to snapping.

I squeaked in pain. Despite all my icy hardness, I couldn't mask my apprehension of what he might do to me. "We're summoned to the throne room, there's a human female claiming to be Lord Tamlin's lover." I avoided making eye contact with him, trying to pull my hand out of his grip. He held on tighter, and used his other hand to force my face to his.

"Then you should know, Rose," He said my name with such delicate reverence that anyone would think it was love, "that you should wait for me to dismiss you." He squeezed hard in to my jaw that I knew I would carry bruises there soon. He shoved my jaw away and a sharp jolt of pain shot up my neck to the base of my skull.

"Go." He spat the word at me.

I moved to put on the clothes I took out of his closet and stopped short when I heard a hiss behind me.

"Not my clothes."

I raised my eyebrow, "You shredded my clothes, remember?"

"That's not my problem, now is it?"

I clenched my jaw as hard as I could, that was the only way I would not burn his personal area off as I brushed past him.

I held my head high and stormed my way over to my room, Nuala and Cerridwen were no where to be found. I dressed as quickly as I could and rushed to the throne room.

Just as I entered, I saw her being dragged out of the room, unconscious, by the Attor. The bruises and swelling on her face indicated she had been beaten. I looked at Rhys and he was the epitome of casual disinterest but I saw the fear. The fear mingled with rage, defiance, and something else I couldn't quite place.

By now, everyone had dispersed to their own groups and murmured their gossip to each other. Only Rhysand, Tamlin, and Amarantha remained by the throne. I walked up to her so that I was next to Tamlin, Rhysand had taken the position next to her.

"Who was that?" I looked at her adder's smile, but I could see the irritation swimming right beneath the surface.

"That was the testament to your incompetence."

"Excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow, and I knew now was not the time to push her buttons. I did it anyway. I crossed my arms across my chest and shifted my stance a little wider, preparing myself for the blow.

"My mistake Lady," I leaned a bit forward and raised my voice, enunciating each syllable, "I said, EX-CUSE ME?"

Her porcelain face contorted with rage, and she slapped me hard across the face, her nails leaving long deep scars across my left cheek. The sound reverberated in the room and everyone turned to us.

You idiot. I heard Rhys hiss in my head. I smiled back at him cheekily in my head. In person, I stared at Amarantha, a small smile playing at my lips. I let the blood drip down my face.

"Normally I would have you flayed alive until there was nothing left of you but shreds," she smiled at me with what I think was meant to be graceful mercy, but it really just looked like a grimace, "but because I am feeling merciful today, I will let you off with cleaning the dungeons of their filth every night."

I opened my mouth to tell her that while I was on the job of cleaning filth, maybe I can throw her out too, when Rhys came immediately to my side. He bowed so smoothly and deeply, "Thank you, Lady. It would be cumbersome to have to find a new second and train them from scratch."

Come with me. NOW! I could tell he was angry but I followed him, giving Amarantha a half hearted bow on my way out.

We walked into his room but I didn't bother with setting up the hard air. What did it matter anymore?

Block our sounds.

"No. What does it matter?"

"Rose." His voice was hard, as though he was holding back an ocean worth of rage.

With an exasperated sigh, I set up the hard air around his quarters.

"What were you thinking?" He grabbed me by my shoulders and shook me roughly. "Nothing. You weren't thinking. You stopped doing that a long time ago."

"So?"

"So?" He started pacing, "What do you mean 'so'? Don't you care?"

That question ripped the jaded facade off me. I yelled at him, "No! I don't care!" I clenched my hands into fists so tight, I knew my nails were biting into my skin and the fire was burning my palms. I didn't have to say more, all that was left unsaid laid bare between us. He knew what I meant anyways.

He walked over and grabbed my left hand, slowly opening my palm. I made sure to keep my fire from burning his hand. It wasn't him who I wanted to hurt. He opened my palm facing up and tapped it with his index finger.

"You made a promise. A long long time ago. That you would give your life to protecting our people, our home." I sniffled, using my right hand to wipe away the angry tears running down my face. "You don't get to give up and act in blind defiance. You made a promise to protect our people and it's your job to do just that. Plus, I have a feeling our people would want to thank you in person for all that you've sacrificed for them. So that they could live a life filled with love, laughter, art, and joy." I sniffled again and looked up at him. Never had I felt so much like a small child. "And it is your duty to uphold that promise until your last dying breath."

He let go of my palm and walked into his bathroom, probably to give me some privacy. I looked at my upward turned palm. There was a small rose bud at the base of each finger and thorny twines growing out of them all over my hand and connected back at the base of my wrist. There, they extended up my forearm, a bud or half opened rose popping out between the thorns every now and then. All of that grew and intertwined all the way to my heart where a large blossoming rose lay encased in thorny twines protecting it. That's who I was, a rose encased deeply in thorns. The thorns that cut and rip into anyone that dared hurt my heart.

Rhysand walked back into the room and I looked at him. A small smile broke out on his lips, "I missed seeing that fire glow in your eyes. Try not to douse it out." I smiled back at him and walked out. I had some dungeons to clean.

I had been cleaning the dungeons every day for a week since that night and every day, the human girl had been unconscious laying on a small bale of hay in the corner of the cell. On the first night when I found her, she had been thrown haphazardly on the floor, her left arm pinned beneath her. I lifted her gently and laid her gently on the hay. I healed as much of the bruises and soreness from the Attar's beating as I could, but I couldn't heal her broken nose. I was ashamed that I still hadn't been able to heal other's wounds yet.

Every day that I came to clean the dungeons, I could hear the other people that were being tortured. One day, it had been me that was down there being whipped for healing the human girl. I tried to hold off as long as I could but after the eleventh whip, I couldn't hold it in and had started screaming. I knew my screams could be heard above by the courts, people had told me I had deserved it for healing the human girl. Rhysand healed the open wounds of the whip, but the scars remained.

One day, when I was cleaning the human girl's cell and replacing the hay, I heard her breathing hitch. I knew she was waking and would soon regain consciousness. I straightened up and looked at her as her eyelashes fluttered and slowly opened.

"You're awake." I gasped, slightly breathless at finally getting to meet her. I held out my hand to shake.

She glared at me and spit at my feet. I chuckled and pulled my hand back to myself.

"I tried to make you as comfortable as I could, but I'm afraid there's only so much comfort hay can offer."

"You're… helping me?" Confusion flitted through her. I saw her taking in my appearance, she looked at me head to toe.

I shrugged a shoulder, "I figured you could use some allies down here."

"And are you? My ally I mean."

I gave her a friendly smile, "Yeah, I'd like to be."

"Then tell me, is Tamlin—"

I snorted derisively, this woman would be so much more than Tamlin, than all of us, and yet here she was concerned for the brute that silently stood by and did nothing while she was beaten.

"Forget Tamlin." She looked taken aback, and seemed to be slightly angry with me. It didn't matter, I needed her to have her head screwed on straight during her trials. "Your focus should be to completing her tasks or solving the riddle. Your Tamlin will come afterwards."

She shook her head, "I'm here for him. I'm here because I love him."

"Maybe you came here for him, but you're here to do so much more than just free him. I know it." I offered her a smile and turned to leave the cell. I stopped by the doors and half turned back to her, "I'll be here everyday to clean the cell."

I knew how Rhysand felt about her, he tried to hide it but I knew him too well, was too close to him to not see the subtle nuances in his behavior. He had an inkling what she was to him, and I knew what he thought. But that wasn't our focus, and that wouldn't matter until she was successful in these trials and we were free.

I walked to my quarters, and got dressed in my fighting leathers. Strapping my various blades to my calves, thighs, waist, and back, I smiled with feral delight. It was time to go hunting.