Chapter “What is going on?” Kael asked cluelessly. “Why such a harsh punishment? She hasn't said a word since she stepped foot here.”

My stomach clenched so hard it felt like my organs were trying to escape. Just imagining my tongue touching those filthy stone floors made bile creep up my throat..

He got off the desk and I unconsciously stepped back, keeping my gaze on the floor because it was really difficult to look at him.

“A harsh punishment?” The white-haired repeated. “It was one she chose herself.”

Kael glanced at me and I immediately started shaking my head. How was I supposed to know that he was some kind of mind reader?

“Aaron please,” Kael spoke on my behalf. “There is no need to go that far. I know you are not pleased to see her and I have agreed to take her away already.”

If Kael didn't know of his brother's abilities, that simply meant I had it wrong, right? Maybe the punishment thing was purely coincidental.

Prince Aaron took a step towards me and I found myself moving behind Kael.

“Don't do that,” Kael whispered, catching my wrists. “He hates it when you make your fear very obvious. As long as you don't make eye contact with him, you will be fine.”

I stopped moving but I didn't let go of Kael's hand, even as he stopped in front of me. He smelled surprisingly pleasant. Like jasmines.

“I am willing to forgive you,” he started. “If you get down on your knees and kiss my feet. Then admit you are indeed a worthless piece of trash that deserves to be discarded however I please.”

My eyes immediately shot up to his in a death stare. He blinked, startled by the sudden eye contact.

“Lower your eyes!” He ordered, but I caught a subtle shakiness in that tone. I see he was insecure about his own appearance.

Why should a person who knows their self worth admit they were worthless just to please a coward who can't even face his own reflection in the eyes of others?

But I was just about to do it anyway because I really didn't want to clean that disgusting place with my tongue, when a thunderous slap hit me across the face at that instant, sending me crashing to the floor. “How dare you?!”

I held my cheek as the pain resounded in my head. Heat stung my eyes until my vision blurred, but I refused to let the first tear fall.

“Who do you think you are, judging me like that?” He barked, hurling a stool at me. Kale immediately caught it before it hit me.

“I told you not to make eye contact with him!” Kael scolded me. “Please calm down, Aaron, I'll take her away now.”

“No! I want her thrown in the dungeons and beaten to death! Do you hear me?” He screamed, turning his entire desk at me. “Even my own mother has never dared call me a coward! So who the hell does she think she is?!”

Oh fuck! He really does read minds. There was snow getting out of this now.

“Guards!” Kael immediately called, working overtime to catch every item Aaron threw at me. The guards entered in a few minutes. “Take her away and lock her up, now!”

I never thought I'd be relieved to be arrested but I was. I was always careful with my words when speaking but I didn't expect that I needed to guard my thoughts as well.

The smell of the dungeons hit me before my eyes even adjusted to the gloom. It smelled of damp stone, rotting straw, and something far worse. The stench clung to the back of my throat, heavy and wet, like the air itself wanted to choke me.

The guards didn’t bother with niceties. They shoved me forward, my wrists still cuffed, my cheek still throbbing from Aaron’s slap.

By the time we reached the bottom, the silence was deafening. No screams, no rattling chains… just the occasional drip of water echoing through the black.

One of the guards unlocked a heavy iron gate, its hinges groaning like they hadn’t been oiled in decades. The moment I stepped inside, I felt the temperature drop another degree.

“This one’s lucky,” one of them muttered. “If Prince Kael hadn't intervened, she would have been killed on the spot.”

The other guard snorted. “He’ll still probably kill her. I haven't seen him that pissed in almost three years. Won’t be long before he comes down here himself.”

Oh, great. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear before bedtime.

They shoved me into a cell barely wide enough to stretch my arms in. The floor was littered with old straw and dark stains I didn’t want to identify. Somewhere in the dark corners, something skittered, rats, probably. My stomach twisted again.

The guards left without another word, the slam of the gate reverberating through the walls. I was alone.

I don't know how long I stood there but I eventually fell asleep standing, because I couldn't bear to share the floor with those rats and was also afraid of the other things casually lying around.

Soon enough, I heard footsteps and my heart began racing. Was he here already to finish the job?

I immediately searched around for a weapon and somehow grabbed a bone. I didn't want to torture myself by thinking how a bone this big was just casually lying around but I hid it behind me.

It turned out to be the guards. They were different from the ones that brought me in earlier. And the lust dancing in their eyes told me that this wasn't just a prisoner checkup.

“Wow! She is just as stunning as they said she was,” the taller of them commented and they chuckled like there was really anything funny about that.

They began unlocking the bar and I stepped back.

“What do you think you're doing?” I demanded.

“Don't worry your pretty head about that, sweetheart. We're good guys,” the shirt one responded, literally eye-fucking me.

“You know we just thought we could let you have a little fun since you're going to die anyway. Sounds like a great plan, right?”

My grip on the bone tightened.

At this point, I could only blame the goddess for putting me in situations that required me to hurt people to get out of it.

I stepped on a couple of bones about the same size as the one in my hand and my gut twisted. Did a person really die here?

In no time, the two men entered and I knew it was time to defend myself. I waited for them to get close enough and caught them off guard by stabbing the shorter one deep in the stomach. I pulled out the bone with force as he screamed, blood gushing out like water and buried it in the taller one's thighs before dashing out of the cell.

As I ran out, I kept glancing back to see if they were following me and ended up crashing into someone.

I staggered, almost losing my footing so I gripped the person for support. By the time I looked up, all forms of colour drained out of my face.

“Did you just break out of a royal dungeon?”

Good job, Rinata! You are so dead this time!