Crown Prince Lysander.
Freezing cold water was what woke Lysander up from his long nap and his eyes blinked quickly to clear out his blurred vision as soon as he opened them.
“W-where am I?”
He croaked out, voice raspy as he glanced around the room and winced when the movement caused a sharp pain to slam into his head.
gods, that hurts so much!
His head was aching so much and the pain was making him a tad bit delirious as he tried once again to focus on his surroundings but found that hard to do.
“Is the sleeping beauty awake?”
A voice he knew all too well by now filled his ears and he jerked his head to the side, eyes quickly finding that of the man standing just outside a barred door.
He groaned as pain lanced through his brain at the movement and he could have sworn he felt his vision go white there for a second.
But it disappeared just as it had happened.
Something wet trickled down his head and down his left cheek and he brought his hands up to touch it and what he saw was pure red blood.
Must have been from when he was knocked out.
That weapon sure had rammed into him more harder than he thought it had.
And his wrists….
They were both currently shackled apart with strong and sturdy chains and when he followed their trail, he found that it connected to the wall behind his back.
“Why am I here?”
Lysander asked, already knowing exactly why he was here or maybe just a little bit of it but it still didn’t stop him from seeking closure from the man himself.
“I thought you would have learnt by now that questions like that aren’t even worth asking.
Not in your situation at least.”
Lysander glanced around once again as his eyes cleared somewhat and discovered that he was in a small decrepit room filled with lots of junk.
He scrunched his nose at the foul scent emanating from them as his eyes finally landed on the figure of another man standing inside the room with him.
The man looked younger than the other with a stoic face as he stared ahead of him, not even bothering to look at the Crown Prince even when he could feel him studying him.
Where was he?
This place didn’t look like anywhere he had ever been in before and worse still, there were no windows at all to use as indication as to how long he had been napping for since he was knocked out.
His mind began to race as he tried to put everything together but there were simply too many missing pieces for him to even begin forming a proper conclusion.
Who were these people and why had they taken him?
But most importantly, where exactly had they taken him to?
He had been attacked while returning to the castle and from the way everything had happened, it was obvious that the attack had been planned carefully enough that someone had known exactly where he would be and when he would be there.
That meant that this wasn’t some random group of criminals who had simply decided to attack a royal carriage…they really had been waiting for him.
Lysander’s eyes narrowed as another thought came to him.
Did they know who he was?
He couldn’t be certain of that yet but judging from the way they had spoken about bringing him out front and the fact that there was apparently a crowd waiting for some sort of special guest, he was beginning to suspect that they might know exactly who they had gotten their hands on.
Or perhaps they might see him as an important noble?
“Oi!
Look how small he looks in there!”
A new baritone voice exclaimed with pure joy as the sound of metal clinking together filled the small room and Lysander snapped his head to the door once again.
The sound of the lock being pulled out of place filled his ears just as the door was pushed open by the man and he quickly stepped into the place.
“Boss gave me an order to bring him out front, the crowd is going wild with his announcement about a special guest making an appearance today!”
The deep voice came from the burly man and the other man from before nodded with an expectant look clear on his face as a feeling of foreboding filled the air.
“Dang it though, I was feeling like roughing him up before we bring him out front.”
The man he was familiar with licked his lower lips as he stared at Lysander and he felt shivers of revulsion rush through his stomach.
“There’s no reason why we can’t do that now!
It would be a quickie, just ta open him up for easy access when we bring him out.”
The burly man grinned maliciously at him as the eyes of the other man twinkled with barely restrained joy at being able to finally put his plans into motion.
Lysander’s breath quickened as he watched them, his mind racing with so many possibilities as he tried to understand just what these two men had in store for him.
And each of these possibilities in his mind were not looking any good a—
“I brought something ta make it more sweet when we…”
The man brought out a small vial and as soon as the other man saw the contents of it, a large grin broke out on his face and he laughed.
“I didn’t think of that when I brought him here but trust you to always plan ahead!”
He slapped the shoulders of the burly man who smirked and began for Lysander like a man on a mission.
“No.”
His voice came out rough, but there was no hesitation in it because he knew that whatever they were planning to do to him…he wasn’t just going to simply sit there and allow them to do it.
Lysander pulled against the chains once again.
CLINK!
The metal rattled violently but nothing happened as it refused to give way like he wanted and he instead pulled harder but still, nothing happened.
His wrists were already beginning to ache from the constant pressure, but he ignored it.
He had been trained since childhood, he was the Crown Prince and he wasn’t going to allow two filthy men to break him inside some disgusting room.
“Hold him properly for me.”
The burly man chuckled.
“Oh, don’t worry.
I got him.”
Lysander’s eyes immediately sharpened as that was exactly when he realised that they weren’t afraid of him, not even a little.
And that was perhaps the most disturbing thing of all was that they either had absolutely no idea who they had captured or maybe they knew exactly who he was and simply didn’t care.
The thought chilled him to the bone.
Lysander quickly darted backwards, trying to escape the man before he could force that thing into his mouth but as if they had already calculated for that move of his.
He slammed quickly into a soft wall and his brows furrowed as he raised his head up and found the stoic face of the guard from earlier staring down at him with pure hatred in his eyes.
Lysander jerked away from him in shock but landed right where the man wanted him as the burly man quickly grabbed a hold of his arms and twisted them behind his back roughly.
He winced as a small crack filled the air and pain began to emanate from his left shoulders but the burly man grinned as he tightened his hold further, seemingly enjoying the look of pain in his face.
Sick man!
“Don’t ya worry much, sweetie.
We will take good care of ya when this kicks in!”
He grinned wickedly as a hand came around his head to grab a hold of his chin and then they forcefully began to pry open his lips.
“Better open ’em now for me,”
Those words sent chills running down his spine but still, he refused to open up his mouth and the man’s eyes turned sharp as he raised his head up and gave a small nod towards the guard still behind Lysander.
The guard let out a small grunt as he flexed his wrists around Lysander’s chin and the sharp sound of something cracking filled the air.
It took but a second for the pain to reach him and when it did—
A sharp bellow of pain filled the air as agony ripped through his lower jaws that was hanging open without anything holding it up.
That guard had dislocated his jaw!
The burly man grinned as he shook the vial and the contents within it swished around it for a second before he tipped it over and poured everything down Lysander’s throat.
Lysander struggled against the hold on him, trying to shake his head and pour out the contents in his mouth but they all had a vice like grip on him as no matter what he did, he couldn’t escape any of them and neither could he stop the contents in his mouth from slipping down his throat.
“There, that wasn’t so hard now, was it?”
The face of the first man filled his vision and he growled in anger as the contents finally dribbled down his throat and went straight into his stomach.
And it was only when it had all disappeared before they finally let him go and he collapsed to the ground.
“Here, let me just get that for you.”
A new voice filed the air as the guard came in front of him and he quickly began to retreat once again but before he could, the guard’s right arm shot out and pushed his jaws back into place.
Fucking hell!!!!
He groaned out as pain landed through him once again, his teeth gritting together as he tried to stop another bellow of pain from leaving his throat.
Quickly, he bent over and began to slam his chained hands into his chest, desperately trying to draw out the liquid he had just been forced to swallow.
“Don’t bother, the effect will kick in in about five to ten seconds and then, we’ll make sure you feel better when it d—”
“Gentlemen,”
A familiar voice filled the air and they all turned towards the entrance of the room only to find a lean but well built figure of a relaxed male standing at the threshold of the door with his hands in his pockets.
A playful grin played on his lips as he stared at the burly man and then at the other man and something seemed to flash across his eyes before he forced them away.
It was…..
Cassian?
What was he even doing here?
This place was dangerous!
What—
What’s happening to me?