The crowd stepped back, her family included. Her father warily guiding her mother behind him. Teardrops slid down her cheeks cutting through the blood and gore. “Mom?” She went to step forward but her father held up his hands. “Don’t Melantha.” She froze looking around for an ally, but found only horror. Soldiers encircled her as she through up her hands. “It was an accident!” She squeezed her eyes shut and two soldiers stepped forward clapping irons on her wrists and practically shoved her to the ground. A silent scream tore at her throat as she frantically searched the crowd and her surroundings looking for any means of escape. Her eyes settled on her mother who wept as openly as she did, but her father held her back doing his best to calm his wife. The crown prince mounted his horse and the crowd began to disperse. The soldiers lifted her up and moved her towards a holding carraige made entirely of iron. As she was shoved inside her head began throbbing, and as the doors were closed, her consciousness slipped away. She woke in a cell, iron bars leaning up against the aluminium. The chains had been removed revealing scalded skin where the metal had rested. Her head still throbbed, but she was awake. “Just enough iron to keep you incapacitated, changeling.” She craned her head to the left. The crown prince was seated in in a chair tossing an apple up in the air. He stood and came closer, leaning against the cell bars. “What do you want from me?” Her voice was ragged and her body sore. She imagined she looked about as good as she felt. “They named you Melantha? Quite the dark flower they ended up with. A flower is quite a delicate metaphor for the monster you are.” “I’m not a monster.” She attempted to rise but barely ascended an inch before a stabbing pain exploded in the back of her skull. “Your reaction to iron says otherwise.” Rubbing her forehead she squinted at him, the pain nearly blinding. “How am I to blame for something done to me as an infant.” The prince shifted. “You’re not to blame, but you’re also not human. You were not their child. Their child was taken and replaced with you, a wolf disguised as a lamb. It was only a matter of time before your savage instincts consumed you.” “I never meant to hurt anyone.” Yet again she attempted to rise but the pain was intense. It shot through her head and down her spine making her vomit on the stone floor. Tears stung her eyes as she coughed and gagged crawling away from the mess. “There’s too much iron.” She gagged again. “Remove every third bar.” Soldiers swept through the hallway removing every third iron bar and exiting the room. Immediately the throbbing lessened and she caught her breath. “You are going to help me find the fae that have been terrorizing villages across the country.” “And how am I to do that? I know nothing of the fae. Until a few days ago I hadn’t even known I wasn’t human.” The prince shifted again moving to where he was closest to her through the bars. He knelt down and rolled the apple across the floor to her. “You will be our dark flower planted in their garden. They won’t know of your poison until it’s too late.”