Railynn knelt on the dirt ground of the pit. The dark soil was cracked and dry from the summer sun. Two long chains extended from the shackles on each of her hands. Stone-faced guards stood behind her, holding each of the chains. The heat from the afternoon sun beat down on her face and shoulders. Railynn counted the guards standing on the stairs that spiraled up the wall of the pit. There was no way out. No possible escape from this place.

There was one entrance to the pits from the ground level. From the blackness of that arched doorway, two guards emerged. Slung between them, like a limp doll, hung a body. The body of the prisoner was already bloody and bruised. Railynn knew that body, knew that curly mop of hair. Her chest tightened.

Railynn could not separate the memories of those killed in her nightmares from her true memories. Sometimes it would be one of her males, other times it was a random prisoner, and still other times it would be a member of her family or a servant whose face she knew from the Leona palace. She wondered, at times, if those were dreams or reality. Each time she had this dream it was as gruesome as the last. But not once in those dreams had it been him.

The guards laughed as they threw him in front of her. Benjin groaned in pain as he curled onto his side, just an arm's reach away. Benjin did not even fight back as they chained him between the two iron posts. Railynn's stomach dropped.

She knew what they were planning to do. Nothing she could do to stop this. He had to be the last of her companions still alive. Somehow, they knew what he meant to her. Her only true friend in the whole world. She could not save him. She could not even save herself.

"Hey there, Kiddo," Benjin's broken raspy voice broke through to her. His impossibly curly brown and golden hair had grown out into a fluffy tangled mess atop his head. His amber and green eyes looked up at her, still sparkling with mischief. Benjin had always been heavier set, but now, even he looked thin. His eyes were sunken in and she could see his ribs pressing out against his skin. Benjin struggled to get onto his knees. Refusing to break eye contact with Railynn as he did.

"Don't let them see you cry," he winked as he whispered the same words he had told her the first day they met as children in the palace gardens.

A brief memory of that day flashed through her mind. Her knee was skinned, her dress ripped and ruined with mud. She could still hear the other palace children laughing at her as they walked away. Benjin had appeared before her like an angel sent to rescue her. He had helped her up off the ground and whispered in her ear, “Don’t let them see you cry,” The memory brought a small smile to Railynn’s dry lips.

"Shut up," The human guard kicked Benjin in the side with the toe of his boot. Benjin grunted in pain as he fell back to the ground. Railynn let out a low warning growl. It vibrated up her chest, the feeling reminding her of just who and what she was. Slowly, out of pure defiance, Benjin rose to his knees once more. Railynn knew his actions were also to calm her down. If they had any chance at all, she needed to think, needed to calm the beast threatening to burst out of her, regardless of the iron weakening her each day.

"Touch him again, and you are a dead man," Railynn snarled at the guard who was intent on keeping Benjin on the ground. He stopped mid stride and looked back at her.

"Who are you to order me around, little girl?” he snarled back.

"That would be Lady Railynn Ashelin Tal," The Duke answered as he looked down on them from above. Railynn watched as the Duke slowly descended the stairs step by step, ”Better known, as Lady Death,"

Railynn let a cruel smile slip over her lips at that name. Her title claiming that she… not the Fates or any other gods… but she was the mistress of Death itself. Her fanged teeth showing as her grin broadened. She would not let them see her fear. Instead, she would wear her own cruelty like an indestructible armor. Her rage was her weapon. Her wrath would be world-ending.

“I want to be here as much as you do, so answer my questions and maybe your friend here will get to see tomorrow,” The Duke spat out his words like venom.

He waited for a reply, but getting none, he continued, “It was reported that your father led a large number of Etherie to Kilian’s border. They were beaten back, but the question of how many Etherie survived and are gathered still remains,” The Duke was now standing on the pit floor before her.

Railynn kept the joy and hope from showing on her face at his words. She had doubted her father had died in the fall of the city, but to know that he had been so close to finding her was more than she had ever hoped for.

"I want to know how, how did they get that close to the border without detection?”

"How should I know? I have been kept here for the last year," Railynn snapped back, her voice little more than a growl.

"Where would your father hide in the mountains outside of Norharrow?"

Railynn spat in the dirt in reply.

"Tell me what you know girl, or he dies,” Duke Peterson motioned to Benjin, still bleeding from whatever beating he had endured before being dragged here.

Railynn said nothing. She knew quite a few places her father would hide. But she would say nothing. If they were still looking for her father, that meant that maybe, just maybe she had some hope of rescue. And maybe her people were not completely lost.

"Kill him," Duke Peterson commanded. The guard did not hesitate to obey. His iron blade plunged into Benjin's stomach.

"No!" Railynn lunged forward as her world seemed to crumble out from under her. It was as if time had slowed and sped up at the same time. Someone was screaming.

She was screaming.

The small amount of magic that was left inside of her roared to life. Strength surged through her body. Her chains ripped free from the guard's hands. She lunged, a clawed hand ripping through the human who tried to bar her from her friend.

Railynn collapsed to her knees before Benjin. A dead guard with his throat ripped out by her claws coughed in the dirt beside them. Railynn did not even seem to notice as Benjin’s hand grasped onto her arm as he stared up at her. Railynn pulled him into her lap, her eyes blurry with tears. Benjin blinked up at her. A pained smile tracing his lips. A pool of blood was beginning to surround them both.

Her arms were pulled back by the chains, still dangling from her wrists, burning her skin where ever they touched. She roared as they pulled her away from Benjin's side. Two human hands grasped her shoulder, forcing her back.

Her eyes were locked with Benjin's. Her magic was quickly failing. With so much iron in the air and all around her, she was using her magic faster than her body could replenish it.

Railynn was old enough to know what would happen if she used up all her magic. Railynn did not care if it killed her. She was already dead inside. She just prayed her father would forgive her.

Railynn grasped onto the last drop of her magic. Somehow, having complete control over this one small decision sent a wave of eerie calmness over her. They would pay for what they did. Without looking away from Benjin, Railynn fully shifted. She could hear Benjin's weak shouts, but she ignored them.

Shadow and mist surrounded her. Claws replaced her fingers. Blue fur so dark it was almost black covered her body. Her strong slender tail whipped behind her with graceful and deadly force. An earth trembling growl ripped from her throat. The guards were torn off of her as the iron shackles broke.

Chaos erupted around her. Before anyone had time to react, she turned and launched herself at them. Railynn's claws and teeth tore into them far faster, and with more accuracy, than any manmade or Etherie-made weapon ever could.

In a matter of minutes, the guards who had held her chains were dead, as were the guards who had dragged Benjin to the pit. Railynn searched the pit for the Duke, who had ordered Benjin's death, but he had fled long before she had shifted.

Her eyes landed on the guard who had done it. His sword still missing from his side. She had him trapped. Her massive feline body was blocking his only two exits. Her giant paws were silent on the dusty ground. Railynn did not need to be in her feline form to kill him.

Shadows surrounded her as she shifted for the last time. That action alone almost pushing her over the edge. Her magic wained inside of her as the little strength she had, began to fail. She showed no weakness.

"Please!" The human screamed as Railynn slowly bent down and picked up one of the iron swords that littered the ground. She did not let herself think about how the iron burn was beginning to fade.

Railynn gripped the hilt of the sword tightly. Using every last ounce of her strength. She drove the blade into the man's stomach. Letting him slowly bleed out on the ground.

Turning, Railynn hurried to Benjin's side. She gasped in horror, as Benjin yanked the sword from his body, only speeding the process along. Railynn pushed her hands against his wound, trying to stop the blood.

Tears soaked her cheeks. Even then she could feel her body weakening, her own death approaching quickly. Benjin's hand covered hers. His eyes met hers as he smiled up at her.

“Rae,” he whispered, before his eyes slowly closed. Pain, she had never felt before, crashed into her. Like someone had cut out her heart. She held her dead friend in her arms. Unable to stop the hot tears from streaming down her face.

She did not move as guards began to pour into the pit and surround her. Slowly, she stood. The iron sword that had killed Benjin limply hung in her hand. Her eyes were dead as she looked over the humans standing around her. They hesitated a moment, unsure of what to do. She made no sound as she attacked, cutting into them one by one. Never straying far from Benjin's side. Finally, they restrained her. The humans locked iron shackles around her neck, wrists, and ankles. Rae did not feel their burn as she collapsed to the ground, her magic completely gone.

—

Rae woke with a start. Her heart was still racing from the nightmare. She was not in a Kilian prison. She was in her rooms, in Leona. Sunlight streamed in through an open window that a servant had no doubt opened hours before Rae had awoken. Her body felt heavy and tired from the long night of celebrating her parent's 300th year of marriage.

The soft sound of a book page being turned tickled Rae's ears. She rolled over in her massive silk white bed to see Benjin, her mate, sitting by the fire. A different book than the one he was reading just the day before propped open in his hand.

As she sat up to look at him, his dual-colored eyes peeked over the book and looked back at her.

"Good morning," She did not have to see his mouth to know a cocky smile now traced across his lips.

"How are you up so early?" Rae yawned and chuckled at the same time. Benjin was no stranger to parties, and he had used the opportunity to get far drunker than Rae had ever seen him before.

"Because, unlike someone, I can handle my wine," Benjin said finally closing his book and rising from his seat. He set the book down sliding a piece of ribbon between the pages before abandoning it on his chair.

"You look beautiful this morning," He smiled as he crossed the room, coming to sit on the edge of her bed.

"That is a lie," Rae rolled her eyes and flopped back down on her pillow.

"I cannot tell a lie," Benjin chuckled before adding, "compared to a hollow you are absolutely breath-taking," He jabbed. Rae roared with laughter, and without warning, she moved to chuck a pillow at his head. Before she could, Benjin caught her wrist with his hand and pushed her back to the soft bed.

Thunder rumbled loudly outside. Rae's attention snapped to the sun still streaming in through the window.

"Is something outside more interesting than your own mate?" Benjin asked in an overly dramatic voice. He pressed his hand to his chest as if he were insulted.

"It is nothing, I just thought I heard thunder," Rae muttered looking out the window for just a moment longer.

Something about Benjin's eyes were wrong too, but when she looked again, they were just as they had always been.

An image of Benjin surrounded by a pool of his own blood flashed in her mind. Rae shook her head, trying to erase that horrible dream from her head. Pulling herself out of bed, Rae grabbed her soft robe from the back of her dressing chair, she wrapped it tightly around her body.

"They are just bad dreams, they are not real," Benjin came to stand beside her. He gave her a warm encouraging smile as he wrapped his arm around her. Was she that obvious?

Rae rubbed her finger over her smooth wrists. No scars from chains were there. She could not remember why she thought there would be? Rae stretched out her hand and willed her claws to form, but nothing happened. She frowned staring down at her hand in frustration.

"It will come back," Benjin smiled warmly. Like a memory had suddenly been unlocked in her head, the horrible memory of drinking the liquid iron burned through her mind. The pain that had run rampant through her body. Rae shuddered at the memories. Yet somehow, she had survived it.

The more she thought about it, the more it seemed wrong still. It had not been her that was poisoned, it had been her mother. Her mother had died over a century ago. Her father had spent what would have been their 300th anniversary sitting alone in the King's valley, where all royal's ashes were scattered, including her mother's.

"It is just the iron poisoning messing with your mind," Benjin turned Rae, forcing her to look him in the eyes. He was right. It was the iron poisoning messing with her memories, of course. Her mother was alive still. She had seen her just last night.

"You survived it," he smiled, "you're going to be okay,"

Rae forced a small smile and looked up at him, "You're right.” She had finally gotten everything she ever wanted. She was finally a normal fae. No shifter magic to make her different than the others. Though she felt sad at the loss of that magic, she had friends now, and she had Benjin. She would be okay, so why was Benjin so upset? Something was off about him, but she could not put her finger on it.

"How did you survive?" Benjin asked looking her over as if he could stare at her long enough and the answer would simply appear.

Rae thought for a moment and shrugged, "I don't know," she answered. It puzzled her too. It had been a full week since she was poisoned and there was no sign of her magic returning. No fae or Etherie survived iron poisoning, not when they lost their magic entirely. She should be dead.

"No, only you know," Benjin insisted, "What is your secret Railynn? What have you not told me?" He asked.

Rae frowned. Benjin never called her Railynn. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but again there were no storm clouds on the horizon.

"This is wrong,” Rae shook her head. She pulled away from Benjin. Benjin whose eyes were not quite the right colors. No, they were now purple eyes staring at her.

It was no longer Benjin standing before her, but the Prince of Kilian. He grabbed onto her arms his nails digging into her skin.

"Tell me!" He screamed.

As a thundercloud in the distance clapped, something inside of her erupted. An explosion of shadow and darkness chased away the dream, pushing the prince from her mind. The world tilted and spun. Rae squeezed her eyes shut, pulling herself from the dream.