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Running forward, she peeked her head out the window to see he landed on his feet.How did he not hurt himself?The palace was elevated by stone, so the fall wasn’t small.

Looking up to her, he raised his hands.

“I am not jumping from this window,” she said with a shake of her head.

He survived, but I will likely break an ankle.

“Come now.” He waved his hands, telling her to jump. “I will catch you.”

It felt like she was in the children’s tale of Rapunzel, where the prince asked for her to lower her hair from the tower window. Valerie very much felt like telling the prince to go fuck himself.

“I am sorry, but I do not think I trust you.”

She knew he would try; it wasn’t that she didn’t think he would. She was just worried it wouldn’t matter, and she would end up crushing him instead.

She thought she heard a strange sound come from him, something akin to a growl that an angry wolf would make. It was a perplexing sound from a human, one that made her want to shrink away.

“Fine, Lady Cecily. Find your own way to the dungeon without a key or knowledge of its whereabouts.”

“Wait,” she called, reaching her hand forward when he began to walk away.

He paused, turning back to fold his arms and give her a raise of his brow. She climbed onto the windowsill, her heart tightening in her chest. She sat on the edge, trying to keep her balance with her heels against the outer wall.

One shoe began to slip off.

A gust of wind billowed her hair over her shoulder. “O-okay, I will let you catch me.”

“What if I no longer want to?”

Valerie took in two quick breaths.He will not let me fall; he will not let me be hurt.Deciding to trust he would catch her regardless of what he said, she closed her eyes and jumped without warning. She hoped he was strong enough to catch her weight from such a height.

Her silent fall ended with her landing within a cradle of strength. He’d caught her with ease, like she weighed nothing more than a pillow.

“See, I told you I would catch you,” he grinned.

She quickly turned her head away to snub him, even when her heart gave a tender pang.

He set her down on her feet and grabbed her wrist before ducking down and pulling her along the outer wall of the palace. He walked to the corner of the stone hallway they’d been traversing to the room that extended from the outside.

He peeked his head out to make sure no one was there before dragging her along it to the next hallway. They continued down outside the palace walls, Geryon making sure they wouldn’t be spotted.

They came to a wooden door leading from outside, and he slipped a key inside the lock to open it.

“How come you are allowed so many keys?”

“Like it has been mentioned, King Bradwick trusts me. No place within the palace is off limits to me.”

Once they were inside, she peered into the inky darkness to no avail.

After moving them to a small perch in the wall, Geryon began striking flint and steel together close to a fabric torch. It eventually lit, and he held it for her as they walked down the narrow, spiralling steps. The further they went, the more a cool chill crept up her spine, the worn stone walls cold and dank.

At the very bottom was another door, unlocked by the same key he’d used to get them into the stairwell.

“Are there two entrances?” she asked when it seemed like they were coming from a strange direction.

“Yes. The one we are using is used to transport the prisoner in and out of the palace without having to go through it. The other is for those inside to visit, like King Bradwick and myself.”

He opened one last door, and that’s when she saw cells.