ELVEN | K.TH

28

RINEI

Eleven thirty.

You have got to be kidding me.

Look. I start, staring up at his face. I think you want to go back inside, Crown Prince.

A smile plays on his lips. He's still holding my wrist, between his pale fingertips.

"I don't know, do I?"

My teeth grind.

Yes. You—

Then the door crashes open. It slams open so hard that it makes my heart nearly jerk out of my throat, and my head snaps up to see a figure standing there.

...Tae?

"Get your hands off of her."

He has none of his usual gentleness. His lips are pulled back into a feral snarl, eyes dark and alight with murder as he stares knives at his own brother.

"Now."

"Oh?"

The smile on the Crown Prince's face instantly turns intrigued. "You're acquainted with her already? And I thought she was just one of the ladies you never gave your attention to."

He looks back at me. And I can feel his grip tighten.

"You are an interesting one after all, aren't you?"

Tae growls. He leaps at his brother, and I stumble back as the Crown Prince shoves me away. His attention is now fully turned on Taehyung, and the excited look on his expression sends chills running up my back as he grabs him by the shoulders.

He tilts his head.

"You're still weak, dear brother."

I scream when he slams Taehyung to the floor, fingers wrapped around his neck.

A gasp tears from Tae's lips.

But then he spits blood to the side, gaze burning. "I can still beat you."

He lands a fist on the Crown Prince's cheek. My breaths start to run faster when the fight slowly turns more and more violent, with Taehyung clearly on the losing side. He'd spent weeks chained up in a room, starved and tortured.

He couldn't even move properly yet.

And the Crown Prince doesn't even seem to care.

Stop.

Stop, please.

But my screams are silent, drowned out by their grunts and hisses as they fight.

It won't work.

My eyes flicker up. This is the fourth balcony— where Jimin had told me he's hidden Sterling. I soon find the bow, concealed behind the circle of bushes lining the railing.

The sleek wood is cold against my fingertips as I approach the two elves.

The Crown Prince has Tae by the throat. He rips the mask off his face, and I silently raise the bow over my head, struggling to hush my breaths.