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She couldn’t think of a solution right now. She wasn’t even sure if she would actually let him go. Emerie was just trying to figure out what she wanted to do, how she would handle this.

Emerie needed to pick a side, but first she would determine what was actually possible – and wouldn’t get her killed for no reason.

Maybe I’m selfish, but I kinda, you know, want to live?

She was so deep within her musings that she wasn’t sure if he’d actually answered her or not. It didn’t matter. It was bedtime, and she doubted her mind would shut the fuck up from thinking to let her sleep. She needed as much rest as she could, even if it was just to close her eyes and let them relax before they were forced to read more boring diaries and texts.

She headed to the door, and her heart shrivelled in her chest when he let out the tiniest whimper.

“Please don’t leave me alone.”

She halted as his plea instantly squeezed at her heart. A Duskwalker was begging for her to stay, and she didn’t think she’d ever heard something so depressing.

She bit her bottom lip so hard she feared she’d draw blood. “I’m sorry, but I have to,” she whispered back, glancing at him and his blue orbs.

She knocked on the door to be let out.

Ingram’s pulse raced with anxiety as he watched the female leave.

Her hair streaked with orange and red, and those light-blue eyes, had brought colour to the four grey walls that constantly surrounded him. Her pretty scent, finally free of that wretched underlying note, had been lung achingly sweet. Her voice had battled with his thoughts, gentling and calming him when he doubted anything else could.

And her touch underneath his jaw had been warm, soft, and pleasant. Under the strength of her holding his weighty head when he’d been lulled by her scent, her voice, and the sight of her, she had managed to bring back his normal purple hue.

Now it was a suffocating blue, highlighting just how anxious he was about being alone in the room – waiting for them to do more unpleasant things to him. His sight darted to every crack in the wall, like he was searching for a way out.

The walls were slowly closing in on him.

He closed his sight to escape it, wishing his mind would cease being so alert so he could finally sleep.

I am so tired.

“You are not alone,” came a feminine voice, echoey but warm.

His sight flashed open to blue, and he looked around as best as he could in his confinements.

The Witch Owl stood before him in her ghostly form.

His entire essence tried to leap forward so he could hug her. She was safe. She had protected him in the past, even if she was part of the reason Aleron was gone.

“Free me,”he whimpered.“I should have listened to you. I am sorry. Please free me.”

Her hovering, intangible form turned solid, and her bare feet slapped against the ground as she darted forward. She began pulling on the rope around his beak and head, and her scratching nails made his ear holes itch.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered quietly. “I tried to come sooner, but I lost one of your siblings. I had to chase down the Demon who stole them before I could come to you.”

He didn’t care that she hadn’t come sooner. She was here now, and that’s all that mattered. She was here to save him.

“Curses,” she spat as she stepped back. “The knot is too tight.”

She pulled out a dagger from somewhere underneath her feathery cloak and tried to jimmy him free. When that didn’t work, she attempted to just cut the rope free. She couldn’t.

“Curses,” she bit out again. “The enchantment those Anzuli put on these makes them impossible to cut without the right blade.”

She even used shadowy magic, tendrils of it forming around his kneeling form – to no avail.

“Cut off my head,”he pleaded.

The Witch Owl shook her head, eyeing the length of one of his binds. “The chains have locks, and they are enchanted as well. Currently, they are attached around your horns, and I could break you trying to get you free.”