As soon as the blackstone touched my skin I collapsed to the ground.

I tried to break from Fwhip's grasp but he clamped the stone around my wrists and neck before dragging me back up to a standing position.

Then he and Sausage shoved me to the edge of the chasm, so all the elves could see.

"WE HAVE YOUR KING!" Fwhip shouted, drawing his sword, and placing it at my neck again. "YOU WILL SURRENDER YOURSELVES TO US. HIM AND THE PRINCESS WILL BE PUT ON TRIAL TO DECIDE PUNISHMENT."

"I'M NOT A PRINCESS!" Erin screamed from behind me.

"Whatever." Fwhip said. "THE EMPIRE WILL NOT BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR CRIMES."

I was just annoyed at this point, but I didn't say anything. All of that, just to be captured and humiliated in front of the whole world. Fwhip's probably already planned my execution.

It was hard to see the elves from here, but I knew they were muttering, and a few seemed like they were panicking.

Fwhip pulled back on my collar to steer me, probably toward their camp, but my legs felt like lead, and I stumbled backwards. I almost fell over, but Sausage dragged me back up. "I'll be taking that." He said, ripping the Xornoth crystal from my neck and handing it to Shrub.

I glared at her, and she cowered backwards as she slipped the chain over her head.

I saw Gem and Joey trying to lift Erin up, but she was struggling. They weren't able to get a good hold on her wrists or back because she kept moving and pulling from their grasps.

"Stop moving you little freak!" Joey said and smacked her across the back of her head.

A growling sound came from Erin, and she turned, smacked Joey across the face with one of her wings, hard. Joey staggered backwards and clutched at his nose. I realized it was bleeding a second later when it was dripping off his chin and down his neck.

"You little- Get me a rope." He said.

Joel handed him a rope with his uninjured arm and Joey unrolled it before he wrapped it around Erin's wing joints and pulled.

Erin gasped in pain, but it came out strangled as he tightened her wings together. She screamed into her teeth and scrunched her face up tightly. I saw what she did to her wings. That could not feel good.

I wanted to say something, but I was practically falling asleep standing up with the blackstone on.

"Fwhip- Fwhip sit down." Pearl said, taking my arm out of his. "Your foot looks like it's falling off."

I kind of wish he hadn't traded me off to Pearl. She was gripping my arm much harder than he had been and I knew there would be nail marks when she let go.

"Let's go." Jimmy said, pulling Fwhip's arm over his shoulders to help him walk.

The walk was hell.

Every step my legs ached even more and every minute more frost melted off my face and body, dampening my clothes. I hadn't been this warm in...it feels like forever.

Finally, the blackstone draining everything out of me became too much and I collapsed, almost pulling Pearl and Sausage down with me.

"Woah." Pearl said, crouching down next to me. "What's wrong with him?"

"It's the blackstone, you idiots. It's too much for him to handle." Erin snapped. She had been trudging silently behind me for the past hour and a half, but every once and a while, I heard her grunt while trying to break out of Gem and Joey's grip.

"Come on." Sausage said as they tried to pull me up, but I barely took a step before I fell to my knees again.

"Scott, we can't carry you." Pearl said with an annoyed tone.

"I- I can't." I managed to get out, shaking my head.

"He's faking. He literally just tried to murder all of us. He can walk just fine." Fwhip spat.

"No, he can't!" Erin argued. "He's not used to it, just let me help him!"

"Oh yeah? And let you escape?" Pearl asked, crossing her arms.

"Escape how?" Erin said with a bored tone. "Even I can't escape this. I'm literally offering to help you bring him wherever we're going."

"Fine. But one wrong move..." Lizzie threatened.

"Yeah, yeah, you'll kill me. Whatever." Erin said. I could tell she was rolling her eyes. I looked over my shoulder and saw Gem and Joey letting go of her upper arms. But she didn't move.

"Well?" Gem asked.

"I kind of need to use my hands." Erin said and glared at her. Gem gave her a cautious look before taking something off her hands. She jogged up to me and crouched down in front of me. "You good?" she asked in a voice so low; I could barely hear it, her lips barely moving at all.

I gave her a small nod, but then I shuddered. The blackstone felt like it was tightening on my skin, although I'm sure it was just my imagination.

Imagine your skin being sucked of all the water and becoming dry and irritated. That's exactly what my wrists and neck felt like under the blackstone.

"Hey, its ok." She whispered, putting her hands on my shoulders. I realized Gem hadn't actually taken the cuffs off, she had just unchained them so she could move her arms freely. She didn't seem nearly as tired as I did, or maybe she was just better at hiding it.

Then I remembered how long we made her wear it almost a year ago when we brought her to Gilded Helianthia for questioning...I hadn't thought the blackstone was this bad.

Then Erin began to take the cuff off my neck.

"What are you doing!?" Sausage cried and grabbed her wrist.

"Relax. He doesn't need nearly this much blackstone on his body. You could make him wear a blackstone earring and he'd probably pass out." Erin snapped and yanked her wrist from his grasp.

"Hm." Pearl said disapprovingly, but she didn't stop Erin from taking it off me. Immediately it felt as if a weight had been taken off my shoulders and I sighed with relief as a fraction of my exhaustion left.

"Erin- Erin you have to get out of here." I whispered quiet enough that Pearl wouldn't be able to hear.

"I'm not leaving you." She said, unhooking the chain on my cuffs too and putting my left arm around her shoulders so she could help me up.

"You can come back for me. This might be your only chance."

She didn't answer me. So that probably meant no. She helped me to my feet, but I was still exhausted, and I was putting all my weight on her. She's stronger than I give her credit for, but she's still much smaller than I am, and she staggered.

Pearlthen grabbed the collar of my cloak so we wouldn't attempt to run off and wecontinued our walk to their camp.

We made it in the next hour.

It would have been much faster without the blackstone. Me and Erin we're slow, but the others stayed around us in a tight circle. I kept looking for any weaknesses but there didn't seem to be any.

The camp was miles of canvas tents and I saw people going in and out of a few of the larger ones carrying stretchers. I cringed when I saw most of the people on them were sporting frostbitten scars.

Some of them stared at me and Erin in amazement. Erin just shot them one glare and a few screamed and ran back into the tents.

The circle around us tightened and I tensed, making eye contact with a few of them including Gem and Katherine.

Erin let go of my arm, I could stand on my own now. That's I heard a fwhoop, and Erin collapsed to the ground beside me. I looked up and saw Fwhip lowering a dart shooter from his mouth. My face contorted in rage.

"What did you do?" I asked, my voice shaking with anger.

"Relax pointy ears, it's the sleeping serum. So, she won't struggle when we try to bring y'all to the Grimlands." He said with an annoyed expression.

"How do you know I won't?" I growled.

"We were hoping maybe you'd cooperate." Katherine answered timidly and my head snapped toward her.

"Well, you were wrong." I spat.

"Fine by me." Fwhip shrugged and loaded another dart into the launcher. I backed up a few steps from Erin's motionless form, raising my hands. I didn't care if I had blackstone on. I was about to break Fwhip's nose.

"Scott don't do this." Gem said.

"For the last time, those four words aren't going to make me change my mind!" I snapped. Someone suddenly wrenched my hands behind my back. I tried to yank my wrists out, but their grip was strong. Their fingers felt cold...and scaly.

"Thanks Jimmy, anyways, hold still, I don't want to hit your pretty face." Fwhip mocked. Then quick as lightening, he pulled the shooter up and shot the dart. It sunk into my neck and immediately, my head started to spin.

Jimmy loosened his grip on my wrists, and I stumbled backwards into his arms. He slowly lowered my down onto the ground as darkness closed in around the edges of my vision.

"Sorry Scott. You should have listened." Jimmy whispered before I fell asleep.