Swallowing thickly, I looked over at Rorn. He was still on the ground, his wrists shackled to the grate, and watching me with enough contempt to burn down the sun. “Please,” I said, crossing the room to free him. Crouching down, I untangled the bloodied chains and pleaded, “If you ever loved me at all, you will stop this.”

Between his teeth, he gritted, “It is because I love you that I can’t.”

I stared at him for some moments. He stared right back, his ire never lessening.

Sighing, I rose on unsteady legs and took a seat at the table, where I watched my husband sit up and rake a hand through his hair. It fell from its tie around his shoulders, much like Scythe’s had before he’d cut it.

I snatched a bowl of chopped melon from the array of barely touched food and stabbed at a piece with a fork, waiting to see what this king I was tied to might say or do next.

But he merely remained slumped beneath the window, eyes unseeing as he stared at the doors.

I chewed the melon slowly before finally asking what I’d been too afraid to know until now, “Who took Scythe’s eye, Rorn?”

He tensed as if he’d forgotten that I was still here. Then he scoffed. “Irrelevant, wouldn’t you think, Astrantia?”

“But it’s not.” I smiled down at the fruit. “It’s not irrelevant at all because it was blue, wasn’t it?” I asked, but I already knew. “He had one blue eye before you took it.”

I waited, but there was no reaction. Rorn stood and made his way to the table.

Unsure what he would do, I gripped the fork and stood.

He looked at it, then at me, and smirked. “Do you wish to maim me for something that happened before you even knew of the bastard’s existence?”

Anger rose within me, a storm I’d barely kept at bay. “I would maim you for far more than that.”

“Your threats are good for nothing more than exciting me,” he whispered and closed the space between us. He stopped when I dug the prongs into his throat. “You cannot do it, Bloom.”

The fork punctured the first few layers of skin, blood bubbling and coating the silver crimson.

Rorn’s eyes widened, and he laughed. “At least let me get my cock out before we skip past foreplay.”

I scowled. “You’re aroused.”

“Anything you do arouses me, but if I’d had known how feral you liked to be, I’d have chained you with iron in our rooms and fucked you free of want for anything but me a long time ago.”

His attempt to deter me wouldn’t work. “Why?” I demanded between my teeth. “Why take his eye?”