*Hey guys! I'm soooooo sorry I haven't updated in months, and I apologise deeply. School has been extremely busy, and I've recently come back from a 4 week holiday overseas. Please forgive me!
Also, I'm turning this fanfic into an original story, as it has no relevance to the plot of ACOTAR/ACOMAF whatsoever. Please by patient with me! I'll try to upload it on Inkitt (search leviofliccat) and maybe FictionPress.
As always, thank you so much to the few people who read this story! It means a lot to me!

~leviofliccat

"Why is that girl from the dungeon in your house?"

"Why not?"

"What are you planning to do with her? She's not yours."

"That's none of your business. Why do you care so much?"

"I'm just saying that I don't think – no, I know that it's a bad idea to keep her here."

"And how would you know that?"

"That's none of your business."

The voices were cloudy and the words were hard to make out. Though, from what I could hear, I figured there were two people talking to each other somewhere nearby, a girl and a boy. My eyelids felt like lead, and there was a spot on my neck that throbbed terribly. The voices were getting softer now as I struggled to keep consciousness. Managing to finally strain my eyes open a little bit, I made to move a hand to my neck to massage the pain away, however my action was cut short as I felt a stiff metal cuff around my wrists, and apparently also around my ankles. Instead, I turned my head to face my right, where I saw the blurry shapes of the two figures talking. One had long, silvery hair, and was quite tall, wearing a simple white tunic and pants, while the other was around the same height, with light blonde hair and some sort of warrior's armour. They were still in conversation, and the silver-haired girl seemed to be spitting more insults at the guy, her hands on her hips. The blonde boy seemed to be defending himself, and to be honest, the scene was rather funny. A small giggle escaped my lips, my eyes beginning to flutter shut again, but my eyes snapped open as suddenly, the girl whirled towards me and started walking over to me. My smirk dropped into a questioning frown as she reached me in a matter of seconds, closely followed by the boy, who stared at me with a look I couldn't quite place. I furrowed my brow at him.

"You tried to kill me. Why are you here?" I snarled, attempting to glare at him while lying down, which didn't exactly work.

"That's what I tried to ask." The girl answered for him, which earned a nasty look from him in return. She gave him a glare, then turned back to me. Without warning, she pressed her fingers to my neck, and I flinched away, but it felt like she was draining away the pain. She stepped back, clicking her fingers to release the binds around my wrists and ankles, letting me sit up on what I now recognised as not a bed, but a…table?

I looked back up at the two fae, who I could now see clearly. The girl's face was expressionless, but one look into her eyes and I remembered her instantly. I looked her over once, deciding she couldn't be much older then me. Then again, High Fae don't age much visibly. She nodded at me as I flicked my gaze to the boy. Something about him was familiar, from before the dungeon incident. I looked into his eyes, and those glittering pair of silver irises stared back, but I had a feeling he was hiding something, something nobody but him knew. Narrowing my eyes at him, all I got in return was a stuck out tongue. I opened my mouth to snarl a rude remark, but was interrupted by a heavy sigh.

Both of us snapped our heads around to see a tired-looking fae folding her arms.

"Can both of you please behave yourselves and stop acting like idiots?"

I mentally glared at her, but shot one last scowl at the guard before turning to face her, my hands on my hips.

"Thank you. Now please listen to me. I need to ask you something." She sighed, looking at the High Fae who had just turned to leave. "This involves you too, stupid. Now get back here before I freeze your balls off." She smirked as he froze and slowly turned his attention back to the girl. "Good." I stiffened as she suddenly whipped her gaze to lock onto mine though I kept a cool demeanour as she leisurely crept towards me, her eyes scanning me as she stalked around me, eventually ending up facing me once more. "You have good muscles, and seem to be quite agile, but…" she trailed off, her gaze flicking over me again. Who the hell does she is, talking about me like that?! I tensed, trying extremely hard not to yell at her. "But how do you explain the fire? It's unusual for a fae like you to have… special abilities." She spat the word out as if it was poison, and I snarled.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Her eyes narrowed, and a sharp, heavy force jammed into my stomach, knocking the air out of me and shoving me backwards. I gasped, an arm clutching my middle as a grin crept upon my face. I stared up at her, slowly standing up fully, a hand reaching to my weapon. Though it only found air. I stared at my empty belt, my trusty double-bladed axe and daggers relieved from me.

"Missing something?" Looking up again, I noticed a smirk on the fae's face as she watched me realise I was unarmed, but that smirk soon faded as I laughed quietly. Some sort of terrible gleam shaded my eyes, making them seem blood red, as I hissed, my voice scarily soft,

"You think that could match what I've felt in the torture sites of Dalburgh?" I laughed again, even quieter, watching the look of shock slowly crawl upon her face. I felt my fingertips begin to heat up as I clenched my jaw, pointed teeth flashing.

"I-I didn't know you were from Dalburgh!" The girl murmured, her eyes flicking to my hands while backing away into the guard, who stood bravely with a hand at his mace, though fear still lingered in his eyes. I let out a terrifying growl, fire now dancing in my raised palms. I turned my head to gaze into the flickering flame.

"Six hundred and seventy-four years." I whispered, my expression falling neutral. I could vaguely hear a gasp emit from the two in front of me. "Six hundred and seventy-four years." I snarled, my gaze sharpening as my heart wrenched. I snapped my eyes back to lock onto the girl's. "Six hundred and seventy-four goddamn years of being put through excruciating pain, just for the pleasure of five monsters." My voice cracked at the end of the sentence as I relived the lashings, the beatings, the cracking of bones, and most vividly of all, the laughter. The psychotic laughter rang through my ears as I lost control of the fire, shooting it out as a stream of scorching, crimson fire, heading directly for the two fae. They jumped out of the way, letting it burn the cold stone table behind them. Everything turned hazy as I shoved my palms onto my temples, squeezing my eyes shut, trying to stop the screaming, the laughter, the pain, the blinding pain, it flowed everywhere in my body, in my scars, in my head, in my chest, every part of my body was shrieking in agony, and I just wanted it to stop, everything to stop… "JUST STOP! STOP IT!" Then everything went black as the fire finally engulfed me and my memories.