The guards threw open the prison door and thrust Zane inside, causing him to cry out in pain as he collapsed onto the hard, rock floor. He heard gasps of concern from somewhere within the room, but his attention was completely focused on someone else. He struggled to sit back up with his hands bound together and glared at the guards separating to let in the one person he dreaded seeing most in the world.
Prince Andreas slowly walked towards the boy on the floor, his intricately decorated clothing brushing the floor behind him. He stopped in front of Zane, his chin held high as he looked down at him.
"Finally, you're exactly where you belong. In the moldy, underground prison cell where you'll be left to rot."
Zane clenched his jaw in anger, refusing to break eye contact with the prince, even when he dug the staff he was holding into Zane's shoulder.
"Just like you deserve."
Zane silently sighed in relief as the prince took a step away and circled around him instead. Zane felt his gaze piercing into him, but he held his gaze steady in front of him. He glanced up to look at the prince once he stopped in front of him again, and felt a flare of anger when he saw the smirk on his face.
He pushed himself off the floor to stand at eye level with the prince, who raised an eyebrow at the act of defiance. "I don't what you do with me, but you promised to let my friends go, Andreas."
The prince's eyes flared at the word. "You are not to take that name," he growled, glaring at the younger boy with burning anger. "You will never again let it come out of that dirty mouth," he warned.
Desperate, Zane grabbed the prince's hand, his cold exterior shattering as he now pleaded. "What happened to us? It was never like this, how did things go so wrong?" Zane's voice cracked as he whispered to the prince, who, for just a moment, stared back into Zane's eyes, the same thoughts echoing in his mind.
And then the illusion broke, and they were brought back to reality. Back to being enemies, the ruler to a kingdom and a traitor to the crown.
The prince tore his hand out of Zane's grip, the soft hesitation on his face instantly replaced by forced disgust.
"Get your scum hands off of me." he sneered, causing Zane to stumble backwards. "I'd sooner die than let you touch me ever again." And with that, he was gone, only his voice was left echoing through the stone room, yelling the order to have Zain executed with the other prisoners.
The boy fell to his knees, his glassy eyes fixed on the spot the prince was just standing. "Z!" He turned to see his friends scrambling towards him, the tears on their cheeks the last thing he noticed. They looked broken; Covered in dirt, dust and grime from being down here for weeks now, and blood staining their clothes and caked onto some of their skin. They looked unbelievably thin after being starved here, and Zane felt another pang of guilt, knowing it was his fault they were all here, and that he failed to get them out, even after he promised them he would.
"I'm sorry," he muttered, leaning into the shoulder of the person who enveloped him in a hug. "We know you tried," Ana muttered, the hopelessness in her voice only shattering Zane further.
"You said he'd changed, Z. You said if anyone, you could change his mind. Change his heart."
Leo voiced from the far side of the cell. Zane hung his head in shame, still furious that he believed that himself. Finally, he lifted his head to respond to the accusation.
"I was wrong. I guess we only have one choice now." Ana scoffed in shock. "We can't do that, you can't do that to him. There must be something else-"
"There isn't." Zane interrupted the girl.
"He made his choice. And now he must pay for it."
