I woke back up in the room, my head swimming.

I was alone. The light was out and I could see my surroundings better, but I couldn’t seem to concentrate. I was still tied and bound to the chair, and there was no wiggle room as I flexed my arms and my legs.

I tried to scream. This time, I had a gag in my mouth.

I bit down on the damp-tasting rag and tried to breathe deeply through my nose. I couldn’t give in to my fears and panic too hard. I wasn’t hurt, or at least not badly hurt. I probably had a ton of bruises from where Corvin had hit me and where my body was pressed up against the hard frame of the vehicle they transported me in, but really, that stuff was minor.

I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath. I gathered myself.

Trip was going to come for me. I had no doubt in my mind that Trip was going to come and rescue me sooner or later. All I had to do was survive until he got here, and then I knew I’d be okay.

Survival seemed like a problem, though. I wasn’t ready for this, couldn’t handle it. I was a regular person from a normal family. I never imagined I’d be a political prisoner and that I might get tortured. I had no clue if I could even stand up to that, or what they wanted from me.

It wasn’t like I knew anything. Trip never shared any state secrets with me during pillow talk or anything like that. Hell, I couldn’t even speak their language. Even if I wanted to learn something, they mostly spoke Starklandian around me, so I couldn’t follow it anyway.

I opened my eyes and looked around the room. A single, large light floated up above me, a lot like in the movies. The walls were bare steel with beams at regular intervals, and the ceiling was at least twelve feet high. Otherwise, there was a drain in the floor below me and nothing else.

What the hell was this place? From what I could tell, it was built for torture. Everything about it screamed industrial body horror or something like that. I couldn’t believe a place like this could exist.

Just then, the only door in the room opened and then shut. It must have been behind me, because I couldn’t see it.

Prickles ran down my spine as footsteps echoed on the ground.

“Hello?” I asked, though it came out muffled.

“Hello.” The voice was right in my ear. The breath was hot on my neck. A hand yanked the gag from my mouth.

I flinched and swallowed a scream.

Corvin laughed and walked around me. “You’re awake. Good.”

“What do you want from me, Corvin?”

“Straight to business. I like that.”

“I can’t tell you secrets. Trip never told me any.”

“Oh, I know that. Our king may not be known for his brilliance, but he’s actually much smarter than the people realize. No, I know Trip would never reveal something important to you.”

“So what do you want?”

He smiled at me, his hands behind his back. Corvin wore a denim button-down shirt left open over the top of a white undershirt. His jeans were faded and fraying at the base, and he was wearing work boots.

“I want you to say some things for me,” he said.

“What things?”

“I want you to denounce the king on camera. I want you to tell Starkland how much of a tyrant he is and how he needs to be deposed.”

“Why?” I asked, barely a whisper.

“Because if the king’s own foreign whore denounces him, he must be pretty shitty. At least we hope that’s what people will think.”

“I won’t do it,” I said. “I won’t betray him like that.”

“Why?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “You barely know this man. He’s only brought you trouble. Why would you be willing to risk serious injury for him?”

I swallowed hard. “Because he has given me something.”

“What?”

“I can’t explain it,” I said.

“Don’t tell me you’re in love with the idiot.”

“No,” I whispered. “Or maybe yes. I don’t know. But I know that I couldn’t go against him.”

Corvin laughed, shaking his head. “I suspected you’d say that at first.”

“What do you mean at first?”

He slowly moved his hands out from behind his back. He was holding two long, wickedly curving knives. A disgusting smile spread across his pig-like face.

“I’m going to give you plenty of chances to change your mind,” he said.

“Please, Freddy,” I said.

He laughed again. “You remembered! But don’t call me that. You can’t appeal to my humanity here.”

“Why? I’m just a girl. I don’t belong here.”

“You do belong here,” he said, coming closer. “You belong here, you wicked bitch.”

“You’re so pathetic.”

He crouched down in front of me. “Maybe,” he said, “but you’re tied to a chair and I can do whatever I want with you.” He rested the tip of one knife on my thigh. “Isn’t that right?”

I spit in his face. I had no clue where that courage came from, but I was so disgusted by him that I couldn’t stop myself. I spit directly in his eyes.

He reared back and wiped it off with his shirt. “You fucking whore,” he roared. He cut me down my right thigh and I screamed. “You’re going to regret ever coming to this country. I’m going to carve you into pieces, you invading bitch.”

“You’re insane,” I said, biting back tears. The pain in my leg was intense.

“No,” he said. “I’m a fucking patriot. I’m saving this country by ruining you.”

I struggled, but it didn’t do anything. He came toward me, laughing the whole time. As his knives rose, I heard the door behind me open.

Corvin cocked his head as someone spoke to him in Starklandian. He replied and then looked back at me. “To be continued,” he said, and then he left.

I let out a sob once he was gone. That bastard cut my leg open, and I was betting he was going to do worse. I shouldn’t have pushed him like that.

I needed to survive this. Trip was going to come, and he was going to save me. So what if I said some lies on camera? Trip would get here before they had a chance to even use the footage.

But what if he didn’t? I couldn’t see how what I said would really matter. I was nobody, absolutely nobody in all of this, and yet suddenly I’d been shoved into the center of the conflict.

I took deep breaths, trying to steady myself. The cut on my leg wasn’t deep, but it was very, very painful. I could only imagine what it would feel like if he turned those horrible knives against the rest of me. I’d be torn to pieces, and I’d be left a screaming wreck on the floor.

I couldn’t last. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t let a man cut me to pieces.

And then I realized something. I had said out loud that I was in love with Trip. I’d never said that before, or even admitted it to myself.

It was true, though. I found that feeling deep inside me, glowing in my chest, giving me the strength to fight, the strength to spit in the face of pain and terror. It was love for Trip, love for a man I couldn’t stand, love for a man who made me feel things physically and more that I never could have imagined.

I was in love. I began to half laugh, half cry as the realization shook my entire core. I was in love with Trip. I was in love with the king of Starkland.

Suddenly, my laughter was cut short as a deep tremor tore through the floor. My chair shook so violently that I was flung to the side.

My shoulder and head smashed onto the floor, and I screamed.