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“Me,” Niall echoed, a smile plastered across his face. The small flame danced over his angular features. “How’s the iron treating you?”

Rion’s only answer was a resounding snarl.

Niall clicked his tongue and picked up the oil lamp. “That’s no way to greet me.” He carried it to the edge of the room and lit a brazier that Rion hadn’t seen before. Rion turned away from the glaring light, his eyes burning. Niall moved to light the other one, then blew out the small flame.

Then Rion saw it, the contraption above his head that held the chains in place. Several anchors were bolted into the ceiling and his chains slid between each and traveled all the way through a hole just wide enough for the links to fit through. He imagined a lever and crank sat on the other side of the wall. If he could break it—

“Don’t bother,” Niall said. “I’ve had a hundred prisoners in here before you and every single one of them has tried. No one ever succeeds.”

“And where are they now?”

Niall shrugged. “At the bottom of some lake or another.”

Rion ground his teeth, but Niall’s disturbing smirk didn’t vanish as he prowled closer. If Rion had been able to lift his legs, he would have wrapped them around the male’s neck and snapped it without a second thought. But the chains around his ankles weren’t near as long.

Niall drew back and planted a hard fist in Rion’s gut. Damn him. Damn this male and all his scheming and plotting.

Rion slammed his body against the chains, pulling and screaming as hard and loud as he could. He yanked at his magic, determined to break through, but an electrical current surged through him, matching his strength.

Rion screamed again before collapsing, breathless.

Niall laughed. “Never been in irons before, have you? Oh wait, you have. Though I’m glad Avalon didn’t finish the job. It would have removed the best piece on the playing board.”

“Do you fight any of your battles or do you only have enough strength to beat those already subdued?"

Fast as lightning, Niall had Rion’s face in a steel grip. “I fight those I need to and render the rest useless.” Niall released his grip and Rion worked his jaw.

“Does Arianna know I’m here?”

Another wicked smile. “Would that cause you more pain or less?”

Rion didn’t answer.

Niall stepped back and rolled up his sleeves. “She doesn’t. No one aside from my closest advisors knows about this place. Sorry if you expected a rescue. It won’t be coming.”

“Why am I here?”

“I think you mean to ask why are you still alive?” He leaned against the far wall and crossed his arms. “I don’t like killing things I can play with.” He smirked. “It irks my father to no end.”

“She’ll look for me.”

Niall shrugged as if the knowledge had no effect on him. “Maybe she will, maybe she won’t. She won’t find you, of course, even if she does break my spell.”

Rion clenched his fists. “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing of consequence. I just amplified her grief a bit, made the idea of finding you seem impossible. Emotions are quite easy to manipulate, especially when I’ve already been in someone’s head. They hardly notice the prod.”

“She’ll break it.” She had already reached out to him. She wanted to find him.

Again, Niall shrugged. “Doesn’t matter if she does. She still won’t find you. And with the distance and heartache, it’s only a matter of time before the bond breaks entirely. Quite a number you did on that, by the way.”

“Because of you.”

Niall touched his chest as if Rion had given him a complement. “Clever, wouldn’t you agree? Oh, the tragedy of turning a mated pair against one another before the bond has solidified.”

“You’re sick.”

Niall’s face hardened. “Maybe so, but the throne is mine, and someone like you isn’t going to stand in my way.”