“You should get some sleep,” I suggest to Everly, who sits with her back against the wall and stares at her mother.

“What if they come for us? What if she needs me?” Everly mutters, and I shake my head. I pull myself up and walk over to the corner of the cage near the door, ignoring the fire’s heat and how close I am to it. I sit myself down next to Miss Drone, only the bars separating us.

“I’m here. Sleep,” I whisper, and she sighs before nodding her head and resting back. I look over at Miss Drone, seeing her sleeping soundlessly and looking paler than she did the day before. Everly feeds her a tiny amount of the powder every day, hoping it will make her better, but she knows the powder only works on external injuries. I sit quietly, hearing Everly’s breathing even out and everything going silent. I try to catch a glimpse of my father, but he is hidden in the back of his cage. Shadows hide him from me. He hasn’t spoken a word to me or replied to anything I’ve asked him since I first got here. I learned the system here is pretty simple; the doors open once a day and they chuck rock-hard, stale bread in each of our cages before they leave. At least it’s food, even if it’s not nice food. I look back at Miss Drone, seeing the hollowness of her cheeks, the way her hair is greasy and lost the shine it used to have. Her body looks broken. She looks broken.

“Don’t look at me with such sorrow, Cassandra,” Miss Drone says, and I snap my eyes up to see her wide awake and her blue eyes, so much like Everly’s, watching me.

“What else am I meant to feel for you?”

“Anger. Feel anger for what he has done to thousands of people. To thousands of innocents,” she tells me.

“Anger will do nothing good for me or anyone else,” I respond.

“In a normal person, that is true. Their anger would disappear over time as they could never win against him,” she pauses to give me a small smile, “but you are no normal person. You are strong. You are a changed one, a woman kissed by a god, and you were born to win.”

“You place a lot of belief in me. I always thought you didn’t like me,” I comment, and she chuckles a little before breaking into a deep cough. When she calms down her cough, she looks back at me.

“I never disliked you, child. I just didn’t coddle you or give you an easy life. I may have been wrong. I could have shown you a more mother-like love, but I knew that would be no good for you.”

“Why would it have been no good for me?”

“Because the future is clear for me, and you need to bond with one person. To save one person and for there to be no choice between us. I needed you not to love me, or care for me like you do for my daughter,” she says.

“How could you know?”

“You’re not the only one the Sea God whispers to, Cassandra,” she says.

“What’s that noise?” I ask, when a high-pitched noise suddenly fills the dungeons, then goes away quickly. The noise repeats three times before there’s complete silence. Everly looks up, waking from her short sleep and looking around.

“A warning of some sort. They always do that awful noise,” my father answers, shocking me a little by hearing his voice. I hear him shuffling around as he stands up. I can’t see all of him, just the shadow of his body through the bars. Everly pulls herself up and runs across the room to Miss Drone.

“The games are starting,” Everly tells her, and she shakes her in disbelief.

“No, they are two days early. It’s always nine days between them,” Miss Drone says as she stands up and stares at me. I’m the reason the games are early, and no one needs to say that out loud.

“The guards are going to come and get us. They handcuff us and take us to wherever it is. Don’t fight them. They will knock you out and we will need your help,” Everly tells me, as her mother holds on to her just to stand up. Miss Drone doesn’t look like she can walk out of here, let alone run in whatever game he has planned.

“Don’t feel pity for me, Cassandra,” Miss Drone tells me, and I look up and meet her eyes. “Not pity, but anger. Remember anger,” she says, and Everly looks between us both in confusion.

“I can’t help what I feel,” I comment, and she shakes her head.

“No, you can’t, but you can control what emotion is shown on your face, and it’s time you learned how to do that. Anger and revenge need to inspire you to destroy his kingdom and win this for all of us,” she says. Everly looks at me, her eyes looking like her mind is swimming with a million ideas. The doors to the dungeons open and five guards walk down. Each one goes to a different cage and three go to the cages that we are in. I watch the other two, seeing them walk far down the corridor until I can’t see them anymore. I wonder if anyone else is being kept down there and what they did to deserve to be here. I doubt it was anything other than the king not liking them.

“Trust him,” Everly says quietly while nodding towards the guard opening her cage. The guard is hard to see, with his face covered in fabric and the usual green uniform they all wear. None of the guards say a word as they open the doors and walk in. The guard in my cage holds up a hand, which has some handcuffs in them.

“Fine,” I say and hold my hands out, knowing I’m going to need my strength to win these games and keep everyone I love alive. Fighting is pointless as I won’t get out of these dungeons with everyone before they could get me. The guard snaps the thin metal cuffs around my wrists, where they dig into my skin to the point of almost cutting. The guard wraps an arm around my upper arm, dragging me out of the cage and towards the steps. I keep my eyes on Everly in front of me. In front of her is Miss Drone who is being dragged more harshly than the others. When we get out of the dungeons into the long corridor, I finally get to see my father. He is at the front of the line of us. His white shirt is torn in several places and very baggy from the weight he has lost. He looks terrible and defeated as he is dragged along. He looks nothing like my father. The guard pulls on me to move quicker and I do, looking behind me to see two more prisoners being taken out. One is a middle-aged man, and another is a very beautiful woman with long, blonde hair. She looks up at me, her eyes seeming lost and scared, but there’s nothing I can do for her. I force myself to look forward and focus on where I’m going as we get to the end of the corridor and head towards an archway leading outside. I can see it’s night now, the stars being a familiar friend as I look up at them while we’re led through the archway. The castle is easier to see from outside, as it sits on a cliff that it almost hangs over. Outside the castle are three paths with bushes lining them, and we are led down the middle one, which goes down the hill. My boots scrape around the rough stone as we walk, and my breath freezes in the air, causing smoke to come out of my mouth. The air is cold, but I don’t think about it as I see where we are being led. Sitting on top of a raised platform is the king on a green throne, furs covering his seat and a large fur jacket wrapped around him. The platform is covered in metal fire pots that keep him warm, and on the other side of him are three girls. The girls can’t be much older than me, all extremely pretty, and they stand still as the king watches me. The guards drag us in front of him, pushing us to our knees, and I give my guard a dirty look, which he ignores, as I kneel. I keep my head raised, only moving my eyes from the king once when Miss Drone cries out in pain as she is pushed to her knees. Everly reaches for her, only to have the guard behind her hold her back.

“The game is in the maze tonight. I had a gift brought here just for you, Cassandra,” the king says, his tone cold and cruel as he looks down at me. I watch as his hand lights up with fire and my throat feels like it closes in fear. I try to move away, as the memory of burning fills my mind until I can’t think of anything other than fear. A warmth suddenly fills me, a feeling of love and protection, and it’s so strong that I can’t think of anything else. It takes me a second to realise I’m feeling my bond with Ryland, who must be near, because I can feel it. Knowing Ryland is near gives me enough strength to look up at the king, seeing the shadows on his face from the fire.

“How kind,” I reply sarcastically, and he laughs.

“My son, why don’t you come and sit?” the king says, and a sob catches in my throat when Ryland steps out from the shadows behind the throne and takes the seat next to the king. Ryland doesn’t look at me, but I can’t help but stare at him as I try to ignore who he is. Ryland’s mark is gone or covered up. He is wearing tight black trousers and a green shirt, but it’s the small crown on his head that makes everything hit home. The relief I felt, the bond between us, seems to burn away into dread when I can’t avoid who he is. He lied to me. Ryland, the pirate who was meant to protect me, is a prince.

“You betrayed me!” I shout at him, but he still doesn’t look at me as the king laughs.

“Don’t you know when you’re being used, Cassandra? That is a harsh lesson, especially when you are played into thinking someone loves you only to find out they do not,” he asks me.

“Apparently, I do not know,” I reply, my voice catching. I swear, Ryland looks at me for a second, but he moves so quickly that I can’t be sure. A coldness fills me, a cold that threatens to make me cry and scream, but I know I can’t. One look over at Everly, who looks like she wants to tell me everything is going to be okay, reminds me I’m not alone. Even if the pirates betrayed me. It’s hard to think back to every moment between us and believe it was all fake.

“Let’s start the games. I am bored,” Ryland says after a long silence. Hearing his voice, the commanding and seductive tone I’m used to, is like a jolt to the heart. It makes me grit my teeth and glare at him.

“When I’m free, I’m going to kill you for betraying me,” I shout, and there’s silence as Ryland finally looks at me.

“You will never be free of me,” he chuckles, his tone cold and heartless.

“We should wait for Hunter. Your brother mustn’t miss this game,” the king suggests, and Ryland laughs, a laugh so cold that it almost matches his father’s. I don’t know how I didn’t see that Ryland, Hunter, and the king are related. They look so alike.

“He is with the maids, three of them, and busy,” Ryland says, and his words feel like he just stabbed me in the heart. Hunter couldn’t have betrayed me, too. They all couldn’t have. I don’t move as I see Jacob standing on the edge of the raised platform, and he does one simple thing when no one is looking. He points at the stars. I know he is asking me to trust him, because of the story he told me, the story his mother told him. I look away before the king notices me looking at Jacob and find him talking quietly to Ryland.

“Why do you do this to me? I love you!” the blonde woman who was dragged out with us shouts, and I look over to see her crying as she stares over at the king.

“You don’t love something beautiful. You use it to make yourself happy and then let it go when it’s no longer needed. You are no longer needed, darling one,” the king says in a bored tone, and the blonde woman bursts into more tears. I want to feel sorry for her, but I just feel numb, knowing that feeling sorry for anyone isn’t going to make them feel better. I think back to Miss Drone’s words, how I need to feel anger against the king. That anger is the only weapon that could help now.

“Love can be fickle and easy to make people believe, is it not, my son?” the king asks Ryland, who nods with a large smile, but still doesn’t look my way.

“Start the games,” Ryland shouts, and the guard picks me up off the ground. I catch Everly’s eyes as she is pulled up, and I can see the millions of questions shimmering in them, but we can’t say a word here. The guards drag us further down the hill until we get to two large metal gates that have three more guards in front of them. I pause as the guard undoes my handcuffs and slips a note into my hand, but he doesn’t meet my eyes. I hold the note tightly as he steps away and the gates open. I throw one more look over my shoulder at Ryland, Jacob, and the king as they stand on the platform and watch us, then I walk through the gates and into the maze.