The blood rushed to my head, pulsing as I hung upside down over Jason’s shoulder; I lay motionless—all fight in me burned away with the life of David. My lip began to heal with the blood now coursing through my veins, and the warm rush, the life force David left behind in me, made me want to vomit. I slowly reached up and slid my fingers between my teeth.

“Don’t!” Jason flipped me back into his arms and held me like a child, his vehement glare a warning. “If you throw that blood up, you’ll lose the last bit of David you’ll ever have.”

My chin quivered. I ran my tongue over my lip, forcing it against my teeth to break open the gash that healed because of his death.

Jason shook his head, breathing out as he ran, so fast I barely even saw the bodies now lining the halls. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “That was silly.”

“What’s going on?” I asked wearily, hearing a loud crack and the writhing terror of distant voices.

“They’ve come for you.” He steered down the dark stairs, leading to the dungeon he first locked me in.

“Who?” I don’t think I can take any more pain.

“They won’t hurt you.” His voice split the darkness, the only evidence, aside from his arms, that he was still there. But the light over the bed I first slept on here soon greeted us. He placed me gently down and knelt before me. “Ara?”

I looked back from my distraction of the stairs, shadows and flames dancing along the walls, coming up fast behind us.

“Ara, I need to tell you something, but we don’t have much time, so—” He pulled a syringe from the pocket of his shirt. “I need you to listen, even if this doesn’t make sense. Okay?”

I nodded, staring at the needle.

He swallowed hard and unbuttoned his shirt, holding the syringe between his fingertips. “I hate what you are, but I love the girl in you—I always have, and I need you to know—”

“Jason. Please? Tell me what’s up there?” I looked at the staircase as a shadow covered the wall at the bottom—getting closer.

“It’s them—the Lilithian Knights.” He rolled his collar over his shoulder and uncapped the lid from the syringe, using his teeth.

“The Lilithian what?”

“They want their princess back.” He stopped, and looked behind him, smiling.

“Get away from her!” a raging, husky voice warned.

“Mike!” I screamed and launched off the bed, straight into his arms.

“Ara!” He kissed my forehead, squeezing me with familiar compassion. Love. Warmth. Kindness. “What have they done to you?” He took one look at my face, and tears welled in his eyes, forcing out over an enraged scowl.

We both looked at Jason, who stood as if waiting for something.

“I’ll kill you,” Mike growled, pushing me onto the bed as he stomped toward Jason.

“Mike, no!” I jumped up and grabbed his arm. “He’ll kill you.”

“I wish him luck.” He shoved me back and a soft, thin pair of arms wrapped around me, cradling me to a bony shoulder.

“It’s okay, Amara—you’re safe now.”

“Who are you?”

“I’ll tell you later.” She tugged me along, too strong for me to fight, taking me further and further away from Mike—away from Jason. “For now, we need to get you out of here.”

“No. I can’t leave Mike. Jason will—”

“It’s okay. Really.”

“No, it’s not okay. Why should I listen to you? Let me go.”

“I’m here to help you.”

“No, you’re not.” I tugged my arm free. “I don’t know you, I don’t any of—”

“My name is Morgaine. I’m a friend of—”

“Lilithian Morgaine?” We stopped; the girl looked at me, her eyes liquid and round, framed by her short-cropped cherry-red hair. “David’s Morgaine?”

She smiled and nodded. “It sounds nice when you say it like that. But, yes. I am she.”

“But, Jason said your people tortured David.”

“Yes, David was sent to us.” She looked down. “I was his punisher.”

“You? You did that to him?”

“No.” She smiled, shaking her head. “I didn’t. I—”

A loud roar echoed off the walls like a mountaintop call, and the crack of sticks made my eyes go wide; I pushed away from Morgaine’s arms and ran back to the cell, stopping dead at the sight of a body on the floor. “Mike! Oh, my God.”

Everything froze.

“Ara. You shouldn’t be here.” Mike grabbed me and pulled me into his chest. My eyes stared, wide and disbelieving, as Jason rose from the floor with a bloodied face.

“What did you do to him?”

“I punched him,” Mike said with a self-satisfied grin.

“But...”

Jason stood fully from his folded position and uncupped his hands from his face. The blackened bruising faded to yellow in front of my eyes before vanishing completely, leaving only a dried trail of blood over his upper lip.

“Ara—” Mike pushed me into Morgaine’s arms, “—you need to get out of here.”

“Why?” I asked, watching Mike roll the sleeves of his grey shirt up as he walked toward Jason.

“Because I have a score to settle.”

Morgaine pulled me by my tattered wrist; I slipped my hand from her grip and stopped. “Just. Wait.”

Mike sighed. “What?”

Jason looked up at me, his face flooding with confusion as I wandered over and stood before him. “I need my wedding ring back.”

After a deep breath, Jason reached into his pocket. “Ara?” he said softly, closing my fingers around the ring, holding them there; my skin crawled with his touch. But he said nothing more, just stared into me, his pale, murky green eyes turning bright and emerald, almost like David’s used to be. As if the world stopped for that one moment, we stood there, our gazes locked—a wordless exchange of anguish, fear and sorrow betraying my heart with confusion.

My hand started to shake and the sound around us came rushing back as Mike pushed me aside and slammed Jason into the wall—blood bursting out through his lips as he folded over again.

Everything slowed down around me; my body stopped living for a breath; no rational emotion a part of me. No fear, no anger—only pity, distorted by surprise when Mike stepped back and dropped a roundhouse kick to my torturer’s face, blurring as he spun.