I let my head hang limp, eyes barely open as I slumped against the stone wall, chains still biting into my wrists. My lips were cracked. Dried blood coated my chin. My breathing was slow enough to sound unconscious…just like they wanted.
But my mind was never still.
For three days, I'd listened to them laugh. Watched them parade my body through their little torture games like boys poking a hornet's nest. I let the Third Prince think he'd won. I let the guards believe I'd broken.
Too bad for them that they didn't realize that they should have snapped my neck when they had the chance.
"Is she still breathing?" one of them whispered.
"Barely. We'll move her over to the other cave now that she can't move. The Prince said the fun is not over yet."
The chains rattled as one guard knelt beside me, unfastening the iron cuffs around my wrists and ankles. The other grabbed my arm, his fingers digging into the bruise blooming across my shoulder.
