Making you wait in that cell for someone to come and save your life was the hardest moment Rhysand had yet faced Under the Mountain. You were in such pain, and he could not - would not - wait any longer to reach you. He teleported into your cell, hiding in the shadows to watch you for a minute- his beautiful mate, now so sick and pale. And you didn't even know of their bond.

Rhysand steadied himself, knowing he had a job to do, one that he would forever hate. You couldn't know that he wasn't fully dedicated to Amarantha, the woman he secretly despised more than anything. But his heart hurt in his chest as he looked at you, his mate. His everything.

A smile not at all kind etched itself on his face as he took a step out of the shadows. "What a sorry state for Tamlin's champion," he said.

But as you looked up at him with such hate in your eyes, hate he knew he deserved, it was all he could do to not start crying.