family no matter the scandal and scorn it had caused.
Would Farrendel’s Princess Elspeth love him in that way? Or would she falter at the first sign of trouble?
No, Melantha might not have bothered to get to know her new human sister, but Princess Elspeth had proven to be incredibly loyal and resilient.
Melantha picked up the last piece of her bread and gave it to Farrendel after sopping up the last of his larger portion of soup. As he chewed, she struggled to think of something to say. This tense silence gnawed at her.
What could she say? From his stony silence, he had no wish to converse with her.
Prince Rharreth pushed away from the wall, taking a step toward her. Her time was up. If she was going to say something, she needed to figure out what it was and how to say it now.
She rested her hand on his shoulder again, his skin still cold even after the warmth her magic had lent him. “I am sorry. This...this is not what I meant to happen.”
Farrendel’s gaze snapped to her, ice blue and filled with fire. “What did you intend to happen? A quick execution rather than torture? That hardly makes your betrayal any better.”
She flinched, rocking back on her heels. The venom in his tone stung. But what else had she expected?
A part of her had almost expected him not to be angry with her. Farrendel so very rarely became angry. Nor had she intended to be there when he did. The whole point had been for her to walk away and simply move on, as awful as that made her.
“No, I guess it does not.” Her throat thick, she picked up the bowls and hurried out the door, keeping her head down. She left her blanket, though Prince Rharreth was unlikely to let Farrendel keep it long.
At her cell, she handed back the bowls, then retreated to the back wall of her cell as Prince Rharreth locked her inside. She did not look at him. Certainly did not want to give him cause to talk to her. Talking would betray the tears choking her throat.
The troll prince had been right this whole time. Of the two of them, she was the monster.
Perhaps she had always had her broken betrothal backwards. Maybe her betrothed had not walked away because he could not stand the scandal of Farrendel’s illegitimate birth. But, instead, he had glimpsed her anger, her growing bitterness, and had seen that marriage to her would be miserable.
That meant the problem had never been him, but had always been her.
After all, a sister who would knowingly betray her innocent brother to torture and death had to be a despicable person indeed. Not someone that anyone would want to be stuck with in a marriage.
In the end, she had lost everyone. Even if rescue came for Farrendel, it would never come for her. There could be no rescue, no return to her family, no forgiveness. Not for her.
FARRENDEL WIGGLED his fingers, then his toes. For the first time in five days, his toes were verging on warm underneath the blanket Melantha had left and the troll prince had yet to return to take.
Also for the first time in five days, he was pain-free. As long as Melantha’s magic lingered, the pain would be banished. A brief reprieve.
Why had she done it? Was it out of guilt? Was she...?
No. Farrendel dashed away that line of thinking. He could not allow himself to believe she had a change of heart. If this turned out to be a trick, it would hurt that much worse if he let himself hope.
It had to be a trick. He did not dare trust Melantha again. After all, she had spent a century pretending she loved him as a sister. This could just as easily be another deception.
Perhaps the trolls thought it would be another cruelty to make him think his sister had a change of heart, only to lump a second betrayal onto the first. Maybe they thought he would reveal something of Weylind’s battle plans to Melantha, and she would pass them on to the trolls.
Still, a part of him hoped. After what she had done, why did he still want her kindness to be real? Why, even now, did a large part of him want to forgive her?
Weylind had once told him he loved far too easily. Back then, it had been a warning not to fall in love with Essie too quickly.
Yet Essie