He lifted his head off the ground and supported himself with his elbows. "How did you get here?"
"I was just about to ask you the same thing," I said.
Finn was wearing a guard uniform, but his was more messed up than the other guys. It didn't look smoothed out, it had scratch marks, rips and tears, anything that would make it look like he was in a serious fight.
He sat up more from the ground so he was in an upright position. Pushing his tattered sleeves up his arms, he examined more of the scratches, just like me, he was waiting for them to heal.
"I got here because I didn't agree with what the prince was doing."
"You don't agree with him following the boy?" I would agree.
He shook his head. "I don't agree with what he's going to do when he gets to the place the boy is showing him." His teeth gritted together.
I didn't know what Trent would do, I knew that he was going to go find who killed Drew, but how would that effect Finn? I wanted him to tell me. "That is..."
"He wants to kill my beloved." He wants to kill Jen.
Trent would kill her, he wouldn't just throw her in a cell again; he was going to kill her. When I thought about Jen being dead, I didn't feel bad. I thought about all the bad she has done, she deserves it. Then I thought of Drew, she was the main reason he died. "She should die." Hearing my own voice say those words was like poison dripping off my tongue. I wanted to believe that someone possessed me to say those words, not me, but yet I'm the one that did.
"So you are siding with the prince? You want to kill my beloved too?" He scooted closer, I stayed where I was. "That's not smart to say around someone that could easily kill you." Neither one of us were chained up, just thrown in a cell together. With little effort he was off the floor with his hand locked around my neck and slammed me up against the wall.
My words came out choked. "You wouldn't kill me, you didn't before, and you wouldn't now."
Maybe I was being overly confident because if it was possible the grip on my neck got tighter. "Or maybe I would. Your prince clearly knew that throwing me in a cell with you wasn't a good idea. It's almost too easy for me to just kill you. So why would he throw me in a cell where I could easily kill his beloved? Is this his way of telling me that when he kills mine that I can kill his?"
I couldn't tell him he was insane, he was squeezing so tight that no words would come out
"All it would take is a twist of your neck and you would no longer be dangling in front of me," He whispered in my ear.
I have not had blood in a while, so my energy was already mostly gone when I was thrown in this cell, but now it drained more. I thought it was all gone, but Finn was as surprised as I was when I pushed my legs off the wall behind me to get enough force to kick him in between the legs. He stumbled back as his hands released my neck.
"I told you—" I chocked feeling strange talking after my throat was restricted. "—you wouldn't kill me."
He looked up from the ground his eyes blazing. The reaction I wanted.
I positioned myself right in front of the door, but was careful enough not to touch it. As Finn ran right at me, all he was focusing on was the kill, not that I would sidestep out of the way just in time for not a scratch to be on me, and him almost passed out on the ground.
The painful silver and ancient wood mixture was still covering the door, just like I hoped. All of it hitting him at once would surely be enough for him to not attack me for a while. So we could just talk. He wanted to kill me, but he wanted to just get out of this cell as much as I do.
"We should help each other out."
He didn't move. I got nervous that it was too much pain, but then he responded, "I'm not working with you."
"What if I told you I know where Jen is, and that Trent won't have time to kill her?"
"I would say you are lying to my face." He glared at me, as he tried to stand up and probably attack me again, but fell right back to the ground with a groan.
I made sure I was on the opposite wall. "I'm not lying, and I will show you when we get out of here. When I find a way out ..."
"Already covered." He smirked at the ground
"What is 'already covered'?"
"I already have a way to get out; I'm just waiting for him to show up."
Who was he waiting for? "I don't—"
"Just be patient, now I want to hear more about how you know where Jen is, and how you know that Trent won't kill her?"
I gulped. "Trent won't kill her because he won't have time; the boy is leading them into a trap."
"I don't understand. How do you know that?" He asked.
"You asked me why I was here, right?" He nodded. "Well, you are clearly here because you tried to prevent them from going on the search for Jen..." I looked at him making sure I assumed right. He nodded again. "I was accused of being an imposter."
"And are you?"
"I'm not."
"Prove it."
I didn't hold anything back, I told him everything. From when I first arrived at the castle with Greg, to meeting Jen, to the original plan of me killing the prince and how it backfired to Jen making another plan on her own. To end off the story on what happened before I got thrown in the cell.
Once I started talking, I just couldn't stop. It felt good to get everything out, and this room was soundproof, no one outside could hear anything I was saying, only Finn. I didn't know if I was smart to tell him all that, but if I did need to tell someone about Jen it would have to be her Beloved.
I was no imposter.
The door behind Finn started to shake as someone on the other side was trying to open it. It got slammed open with a man standing at the entrance, I didn't know who he was, but Finn did. "What took you so long?
This must be the guy Finn was waiting for.
"I just wanted to make sure that no one was around when I let you out."
Finn pushed himself off the ground as he walked through the door, and I followed him until he stuck his arm out from preventing me to get out. "The only reason I will let you out is if you show me where this cause is that you were talking about, and if we get to this destination and Jen is dead, you will be shortly after, agree?"
This was my only way out. "Agree." Finn moved his arm allowing me to leave the cell as he closed the door behind me.
The man that let us out stood in front of us wearing a guard's uniform, he had shaggy blonde hair falling in his eyes and a finger covering his lips. "Be quieter, it's not soundproof in this part."
"Who are you anyways, why would you help Finn escape?"
Finn answered before him. "Jude was standing upstairs outside the basement doors when I started to fight for the people not to follow the boy, then when I was about to be grabbed I told him that for him to repay me, he had to let me out of the cell when I got thrown in.
"Why would he need to repay you?" I asked Finn, but the boy I now know as Jude replied.
"I was dying once and Finn saved me, he turned me into a vampire to prevent me from dying, and for that I am grateful." As he said it he showed no emotion on his face, but that was normal for guards. Finn was already going back to his composed self. Neither one of them even looked in my direction; it was like I wasn't there anymore.
After the short talk Trent and I followed Jude's hand motions as we proceeded up the stairs. Jude went first and talked to the guards on the opposite side of the door that their shift was done and that he would take over. I heard agreement, and shortly after we were freely walking up the steps.
"Do you know where you want to go now that you are out?" I didn't know why he whispered, but I guess it was just for precaution.
There were no guards near. They were either following Trent or on a different floor then us.
Finn and I looked at each other before he spoke up, "Lead the way."
We headed for the door, until I stopped, my fangs wanting to come out of my gums. "I need blood." I ran for the refrigerator and Finn followed behind me with Jude. I grabbed a bag that was on top and slurped it down fast, so did Finn. Jude watched.
It was weird how such in a small time I was okay with drinking the red liquid. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. "Good idea, with both needed our energy up," Finn commented.
It was strange that we agreed on something, since only a couple minutes ago he was planning my death, or he still was planning it, but I knew he wanted Jen to be alive more than he cared about me dying.
I just nodded my head as we walked again to the exit.
"Are you coming?" I turned around to ask Jude.
"I'm just going to stay here and watch the castle, just in case anyone comes back and tries to go down to the cells. You guys can go right ahead." That's when he showed his first facial expression. A big smile and it didn't set easy with me.
"Stop staring at him, we have to go now!" Finn hissed, as he grabbed my wrist and yanked me over to the door. Jude was back to his straight face.
Once my feet hit the grass I took off in a bolt of speed to the destination I knew all too well.
The Tree came into view and I did what Kyle did when he first brought me here. I drew a circle, the letter H inside of it and pounded my fist into it, the bark lifted as expected and Finn's jaw was dropped. I know when I first saw this place I had the same reaction.
"Come on, stop staring, we have to go." I walked inside the tree and he followed right after.
"So what's the plan?" He turned to me.
We don't have one. "Get inside unnoticed, and see where it goes from there?"
I was hoping that they would so pre-occupied with the prince that we could go in unnoticed, because I'm sure he was there already. It was a crappy plan, but I didn't have a lot of time to think on it. There was only one entrance to get in there, so there was no sneak attack we could do, and a sneak attack with two people would have been pathetic. At least we could post-pone Jen's plan, although I wasn't quite sure of the whole thing.
"That's the best you could come up with?"
"You don't have anything better, and you just want to get there as fast as I do. We don't have time for planning, just keep running." He didn't reply, just continued moving along with me. It didn't take much longer till we would reach the other tree of the opening. Vampire speed sure did make everything faster.
"Yeah, just put your hand on it and it will open. " We arrived at the tree, and I was showing Finn how the entrance worked since he was ahead of me. As the door opened I caught up to him and we started to walk in, I didn't take more than one step before smacking my face onto his shoulder blade. I looked around him to see what the holdup was for, and quickly went back to my position behind Finn's back.
We didn't come unnoticed.
Jen was standing directly in front of us, her arms crossed and a huge smile on her face, I wasn't looking at her anymore, but I could still hear her voice. "Finally, you showed up."
I don't know what I think of this chapter... but it looked good enough to post, so I did.
Technically the next chapter is the last one before the epilogue!! Anyone nervous? Excited? feeling like you don't want the book to end? All emotions are welcome!
Hopefully all your questions will be answered during the next chapter. I'm going to try my best to tell you Jen's motives for everything in the most understanding way, but there are no promises! Thank you everyone for reading!