Alone and uninterrupted for what he guessed was something like an hour, Cas managed to slip one of the strands of rope loose from his ankles and pulled the binding off. As soon as it was removed, he let out a sigh of relief. It wasn’t much, but at least now he had the option to stand up and pace if he wanted to. He had been getting tired of alternating between sitting and laying down, and he was better prepared to run if someone gave him the chance to get out. He still couldn’t get the ties off his wrists though. Once he’d finished working on his feet, he’d tried to wriggle his hands loose enough to pull at the knot, but it was too tight. All he succeeded in doing was chafing his skin until one of his wrists began to bleed. Discouraged by the stinging pain of the cut, he left it alone and busied himself instead by getting up and walking in small circles to burn some of his pent-up energy.

Once he had stood up, he noticed that his knees were bruised. Of course, he was sure he was covered in dark marks all over his body, but the ones on his knees were more painful than the others. He guessed that the rebels must have banged him on something while he’d been unconscious. The thought made him roll his eyes. He never asked anyone to treat him special because he was the crown prince, and he didn’t expect the Scourge to show him any respect for the title, but it was irritating to know that they’d tossed him around like he was no better than luggage at the airport. He was probably going to be sore for a week.

As he bent over to stretch his legs, he jumped at the sound of the door opening. He didn’t want to rebels to know that he’d gotten out of his bonds, so he quickly dropped to the floor and threw the strand of rope over his ankles to make it look like he was still tied up. He just hoped they would assume he was shuffling around because he was uncomfortable and not because he was slowly working on his own escape. He wished he had a way to know when someone was coming before they reached the door though. The way things were, now he only had a tiny window in between the time the door opened and the time someone was standing outside his dingy cell.

Fortunately, it was just Iris who had come to see him this time. Cas relaxed in spite of himself. He knew she was a rebel, but he couldn’t help it. He just couldn’t picture her as someone dangerous like the others. The illusion she’d painted of a perfect, innocent girl was still alive inside his mind, so he wasn’t afraid of her. His feelings for her had been shredded, lit on fire, and thrown out the window, but he wasn’t scared.

As she set down another plate of food and glass of water outside the bars, he watched her with a frown. He couldn’t understand why she was still doing anything for him when she’d already gotten what she wanted. She’d tricked the king’s son into voluntarily walking away from his protection, so she and the rest of the Scourge could end the royal line. There was nothing else he could give her that he could think of. [color=#b97703][i]Is she trying to induce Stockholm Syndrome?[/i][/color] he wondered, remembering the condition from one of his classes back in high school. Maybe she was trying to get him to warm up to her again, so he wouldn’t try to run away.

[color=#b97703][i]Too bad I care more about getting home than I ever would about her,[/i][/color] he leaned his head against the ground obstinately. He’d already fallen for her games one too many times, and he wasn’t going to let her get inside his head again. [color=#b97703][i]But…[/i][/color] his eyes wandered to the water glass she’d left for him. Right now, she was the only one who was keeping him from turning into a dehydrated husk. Perhaps if he let her think her plan was working, she would keep it up, so he wouldn’t waste away before the soldiers found him. At the very least, he could throw her some bait so she wouldn’t lose interest.

[color=#b97703]“Why are you still doing this?”[/color] he asked, breaking the silence between them as he sat up against the wall. His voice was husky from lack of use, and he cleared his throat before going on. [color=#b97703]“I’m not just going to forget that you lied to me and betrayed my trust, Iris. If you’re still stopping by to get me to let my guard down again, you might as well save yourself the trouble and quit it, because it isn’t going to work.”[/color]