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would go next? Remembering what it looked like?
    Would she forget her family? Her friends? The Dragon King who had stolen her heart, only to shatter it?
    She tried to hold back the tears that filled her eyes as she thought of her lover, but one still escaped and fell onto her cheek.
    When they had been together it had been wonderful and perfect. It had come out of the blue, blindsiding her when he had ended things. Her world had been crushed, her heart destroyed. It didn’t matter what she said or did, he wouldn’t take her back. Remaining on the same realm had been too much. Rhi walked into a Fae doorway, intending never to return.
    Because of her preoccupation, she didn’t realize where she was until the Dark attacked. She managed to get away, but not before being wounded. She wandered endlessly, dying slowly as she searched for a way out.
    And then her body had quit on her.
    The next thing she knew, she was back with the Light, her wound all but healed with Balladyn beside her. No matter who she asked how she got home, no one would tell her. Then it no longer mattered.
    She let herself mourn the loss of her lover as Balladyn guarded her door. He looked in on her often, always there to hold her while she cried. Until all her tears were dried.
    Or so she thought. How was it dozens of centuries later that she could still cry over a King who had turned his back on her?
    She tried to move her hand to push away a strand of hair stuck to her chin, but she couldn’t even lift a finger. Rhi turned her head and used her shoulder to stop the hair from tickling her.
    If she remained in Balladyn’s fortress much longer, she would lose the glow within her. The fact he didn’t bring even a candle or light the room with his magic told her he knew that as well. He wanted her to suffer.
    All because he blamed her for Taraeth taking him and turning him Dark. The Balladyn she knew before wouldn’t blame her.
    When she eventually turned Dark, would she do the same? It was a fact that no Light Fae ever ventured into the Dark’s realm. Who else would come? The Dragon Kings?
    Rhi almost laughed at the thought. Constantine, the prick, would prevent anyone from even thinking about it. Never mind that she had risked her life by helping to rescue Denae and Kellan, and had been helping the Kings when Balladyn took her.
    As for her lover … that was just wishful thinking. Whatever paradise they had found had only been on her end. He hadn’t loved her as she’d thought, hadn’t opened his heart to her as she had done.
    She had been duped, suckered.
    The laughable part is that she had begun to help the Kings again. Now, when she needed them the most, they were nowhere to be found. She should’ve known that’s what would happen. Once more, she had been tricked by them.
    Would it be the Dragon Kings that she focused her hatred on? Would she go after them when she turned Dark? Would she even remember the Fae she had been when the evil took her?
    Rhi hurried to dash away any trace of tears when she heard the sound of Balladyn’s boots hitting the stone as he approached. The last bout of torture had felt as if it lasted an eternity. She had been hanging onto the last of her hope when it finally ended. How many more sessions of torture could she endure?
    The door of her prison opened and Balladyn walked in. He didn’t bother to close it behind him. She couldn’t raise her arms, much less stand, so escaping was out of the question. Thanks to the Chains of Mordare holding her, any time she tried to use her magic, an electrical shock went through her that felt as if she were being split in half.
    “I didn’t think you could look any worse,” Balladyn said as he squatted beside her. His Irish accent was thick, making her long to hear a Scot’s brogue.
    “Kiss my grits,” she said with as bright of a smile as she could dredge up.
    “Still doling out the insults, I see.”
    She forced a laugh that sounded crackly to her ears. “Me? Go eat