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"They've always come from that way." He pointed in the opposite direction of where I'd come from.

I nodded. Okay. We'd go that way then. Hopefully we wouldn't run into anyone and we'd be safe. They'd all been chasing me through the forest, we were likely to run into them if we went back through the way I'd come from.

Together, we shuffled along with his bare feet scraping across the floor and my heels clack-clacking with every step.

We walked through another open doorway that was just like the one I'd walked through to get into the room with his cell.

We walked down a narrow hallway for what felt like miles and miles but probably wasn't. I think it only felt that way because we were going at a snail's pace due to Romero's lack of energy and the fact he had to stop every ten steps to catch his breath. He might have grown numb to everything over time while hanging up there, but the moment he'd been released, his feelings had come roaring back to him with a vengeance. He was weak beyond belief and his body shook so hard that mine shook right along with him because he held onto me so tightly, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to walk at all.

We stopped in front of a set of stone stairs and I helped him down to sit on the steps. He needed a break and I needed to calm down, because I really wanted to pick him up by his arm and drag him up the stairs. They would be coming for me any minute or second now. I didn't know how much time we had and we couldn't be sitting here taking a break.

"Give me just a moment, please," he murmured, while trying to catch his breath. "Then I’ll be ready to go, I promise."

Yeah, I had to say I didn't really believe him at the moment.

While he caught his breath, I decided to talk about Dash, or more like my relationship with Dash. And myself. Normally, I absolutely would not talk about myself with a person I barely knew, it took a lot for me to do it with people I loved, and I still had issues with opening up to Rain about aspects of my past. I was all about internalizing and spending time in denial.

But I really, almost desperately so, wanted this man to like me. If he was anything like his son, then I knew I'd be in for a hard time simply because I'm female and they'd been abused far too much at the hands of a woman.

I touched the scar on my cheek and blurted, "I got this scar on my face just moments after your son was stabbed."

His head snapped up and his lips parted. Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best way to start, but I couldn't help it, it's just how I rolled. I had diarrhea of the mouth. Always.

I narrowed my eyes on his face and blinked in surprise. The swelling had gone down and several of the cuts were healing rapidly. Julian was amazing, as always.

"My son was stabbed?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice.

Yup, I'd messed up starting with that fun little fact. Since I was me, I kept right on going with it, bad idea and all. Why stop now?

"There was this kid at school. His name was Chucky, and unbelievably he preferred being called that over Chuck. Well, he wasn't a very nice person to me and Quinton, who's the head of our coven, he is extreme when it comes to protecting his family. So he took a personal offense to this Chuck's behavior. This is where things get a little... hairy."

Using the wall as a crutch, Romero pulled himself up to his feet. He swayed slightly but managed to stay standing.

"Let's get out of here. You can tell me all about this... Chuckpersonand what it is he did to you and my son."

I liked the sound of that, especially the whole getting out of here part. I wrapped my arm around his back while he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

As we slowly made our way up the stairs and down a winding hallway, I told him all about what had gone down with Chuck, and eventually we came to a wooden door as I came to the end of the sad tale, telling him about Chuck's death. He didn't seem all that broken up about it.

I handed the torch to him and placed my free hand against the wooden door. Nothing. No magic, no sense of age, the door was just a regular door.

I turned the knob, pushed, and the door swung open. We stepped through and into a clearing surrounded by trees.

"I fucking hate this place," I grumbled unhappily. "And the stupid trees. And these godforsaken shoes. And the stupid fucking Council. And, if I never see dirt again, I'm sure I'll die a happy person."

"Long list to complain about."

He had no idea, I could keep this shit up for hours and hours if he wanted.

"Which way is north?" I asked him.

I spun us around in a circle and honestly wasn't surprised to see another old, dilapidated house attached to the door we'd just come through. It seemed like there were a series of old houses out here that were all connected through underground rooms and tunnels. Almost as if there had once been a whole community out here a very long time ago, and given how old that magic had felt in that door, they were probably a community of witches.

And the Council knew all about it, I'd bet my life on it.

I looked up at the stars and found what I was looking for. "There." I pointed in the direction of north. "We go that way. There'll eventually be a car waiting for us. Somewhere. Hand the torch over. We can't carry it through the woods, someone will see it and then we're fucked."

Well, he'd be fucked. I had a feeling given who I was, I'd be just fine no matter what. Hell, maybe I could have simply demanded they release Romero to me and they might have just handed him over to me.