A little teaser.

Here's a little something I've been writing, a draft for the climax of my first book. It's a bit vulgar and more than a little depressing, but that's what I write best when I'm stuck on other things. So, enjoy.

The creaky iron door slowly swung open, and the Hunters guarding Rhia retreated from her cell. She weakly lifted her head to get a look at the new arrival, but her eyes widened and her heart nearly leapt from her chest.
Entering the dungeon was a young man, only a few decades older than Toryk. He was taller, and paler. His skin was fair and his hair platinum blonde, and though they weren't close enough to see, Rhia already knew his eyes were the purest blue she'd ever seen. His clothes were made of the best material, and a circlet of gold delicately clung to his head.
"Tobias," Rhia gasped. She laid her weight against the chains holding her so she could stand straighter.
His eyes grew furious as they met hers, a terrible snarl twisting his features. "So you remember me, do you?"
She paled to see his face like that. She'd never seen such fury. "Of course I do..."
He opened the door to the cell she was being kept in and slipped inside. "My pets tell me you're very difficult to hold on to. You make their job very difficult."
Her blood ran cold as that connection became solid. The Hunters were his. How could they be his? How could he hire such monsters? They were trying to kill her -
"They also tell me you're very stubborn about holding on to you life," he said with a wicked growl. "But I think they just aren't trying hard enough. How could your life be any harder to snuff out than the lives of my family? Tell me," he said silkily as he drew closer to her. He lifted his hand up under her chin, forcing her eyes to meet his. "Little flower; how is it you found it so simple to steal the lives of the ancients? You didn't even think twice, did you? How did you do it? Because it looked to me a little like you just," his hand lifted up to her chest, fingertips poised between her breasts, "reached in." He pushed against her chest and sharpened nails broke the skin. She let out a yelp, though it slowly grew to an agonizing scream as he drove his fingers deeper. "And plucked out their hearts. Tell me, little flower," he growned into her ear, with such contempt that hurt far worse than the torture he was inflicting. "Were their hearts still beating as you held their lives in your hand? Or did you not even stop to think of the miracle you were taking away?"
She cried out as the pain became blinding, but she did not ask for mercy. She didn't deserve mercy, for everything he said, even what he assumed, was true. He'd known her too well, her good and her bad. He'd known what she was capable of. If only he'd known that she hadn't been cured. If only... Tears streamed down her face and her scream turned into a sob.
"Say it!" Tobias cried into her ear. "Beg for mercy like my mother did! Beg!"
"I'm sorry!" she finally cried back.
His face melted into astonishment, and his hand halted its advance into her chest. "You're what?"
"I'm sorry! I never wanted it to happen! I wanted to change; I tried so hard! I wanted to be your little flower, I wanted to live with you forever!" He slowly pulled his fingers free, and took a step back from her, as though she were suddenly contagious with some deadly disease. The tears poured from her eyes as she strained against the chains. "I loved you! I still love you!"
In a moment, his face twisted back into that fury. "Liar." Before the word could register, he backhanded her face with his bloodied hand. "How dare you. I loved you. I gave up everything for you: my reputation, my crown, my future, the future of my people. I gave it all up to help you!" He stormed away from her, and Rhia almost thought he was leaving. But he strode over to a wall past the cell, a wall lined with weapons of torture.
"Oh God...help me..."