“Lir,” I say softly. “Wake up.”

His head slowly rises until his eyes meet mine. “I am not sleeping. The accommodations leave a little to be desired.” A bruise mars his cheek, expanding outward and swelling his eye nearly shut. I gasp and reach forward to put a hand on his cheek, but he flinches away from me. “What is it that you want, Jax? Come to weasel more information out of me? I must admit you guys had a pretty good set up there. How did you know we were coming?”

“What are you talking about?” I ask. He doesn’t sound like the cheerily sarcastic guy I met earlier. Though perhaps this is who he really is.

A snide laugh passes his lips. “Cut the innocent act. Obviously you have had this planned for some time. Even planned for me to take pity on you, is that it? The shaky hands, the big terrified eyes… I must say, you almost had me.” He pitches his voice up into a mocking falsetto. “Oh dear I’ve injured you come with me and I’ll help you. By the way…what are your weaknesses? How do I get into the city?” His face is cold and hard. “And when it did not work, you had your friends come to lock me up…..and now what? You are trying a new tactic?”

I back away and rise to my feet. “What?”

“The dress is a nice touch too.” His eyes run up and down my body. “Can’t beat it out of me so seduce it out of me, huh?” My face flushes, a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

Lir is on his feet before I can blink, throwing his bound arms over my head so I’m in between them. He pushes me back until my shoulders hit the door, slamming it shut, and he holds me there. “Well come on then. Though I must admit your previous attempts have been rather amateurish.” He leans down to whisper into my ear. “This is what you wanted isn’t it pretty girl?”

The phrase echoes in my brain, ricocheting around in my head… pretty girl… pretty girl…pretty girl. My whole consciousness focuses on those two words. Breathing becomes secondary, and my heartbeat sounds in my ears marking the rhythm of the words. A keening noise escapes my lips and the door vibrates against my back when Emily starts pounding on it from outside. Stone and ice shoot through my veins, stiffening my limbs, but almost as quickly a fiery heat flows through me and I’m kicking and I’m flailing and I’m biting. I’m a blur of motion, pushing back, snarling like an animal.

When I come back to myself, my cheek rests against scratchy fabric and a hand is stroking my hair back from my face.

“Jax,” a voice says in my ear. “It’s okay. You’re safe. Relax.” It’s Emily and my still rapid breaths slow. Color bleeds back in around me and the room comes into focus. My head is cradled in Emily’s lap and she continues gently running her fingers over my head. “Better now?”

I nod and shift into a more upright position, a slight residual dizziness keeping me on the floor for now. The on edge feeling that’s haunted me since this afternoon is gone though. Great cure for creeping anxiety— a panic attack. If only I’d thought of that sooner. At least I feel a bit more like myself now.

The door is wide open, but Lir sits in the corner watching me sit up. “Jax, I—” He reaches a hand out and cringes when I shy away from it. “I did not mean to… I didn’t know. They said…” Emerald eyes meet mine. “I am sorry.”

Lir shifts closer to me, bringing his bruised and battered face back into the meager light. There’s fresh blood dribbling from the side of his lip. From something I did no doubt. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, sending a streak of green blood up his cheek.

I flinch. “Sorry for the…new blood there. Friends?”

Lir eyes me for a moment, a mixture of confusion and guilt on his face, and then chuckles awkwardly. “With friends like you, who needs enemies, right?”

“Well, you wouldn’t be the only friend I hit today.”

There goes that eyebrow of his, amusement flooding into his eyes. “I at least hope I’m the only one you hit twice today.”

“I’ve already apologized for the first one though.” Forehead to palm, I shake my head. “It’s just been a bad day.”

“You’re telling me,” Lir says, raising his bound hands. “And you’re not even the one tied up.”

I rise to my feet, pulling out a small knife that was strapped to my thigh. It’s a good thing I didn’t lose the thing when I was crawling through Dane’s window. Normally my knife would be secure in my boot, but I’m stuck in Emily’s flimsy sandals and my boots are waiting for me in one of the packs. I start sawing at the ropes around Lir’s wrists.

“Are you sure releasing it is still a good idea?” asks Emily. She glares at Lir with narrowed eyes. “I’m worried about you, Jax. You’re going to travel to the city alone? With only that alien to help? After that…” She flutters her hands and pulls her lower lip into her mouth. “I know you have some sort of agreement…but there’s got to be another way. I don’t trust it, not after what it just did. It’s dangerous.”

Lir speaks up, sarcasm biting at his words. “I am sure you are familiar enough with the distinction between male and female to realize that I am a he and not an it, correct?” Lir returns her glare. “I did not ask to be here. Who are you to question my trustworthiness? If anyone here has a reason to doubt motives, it is me. Since arriving, I have been attacked, beaten, knocked out, and tied up.” His voice gets softer. “The altercation was a misunderstanding on my part and I have already apologized.” My knife finally gets through the rope and Lir rubs at his wrists and flexes his fingers. “I gave Jax my word. I will do everything in my power to get her to the city safely.”

“How do I know your word is good, alien?” asks Emily haughtily.

Lir rolls his eyes. “What is it with you humans and your affection for labels instead of names? My name is Lir, please address me by it.”

“Okay then, Lir, how do I know your word is good?”

“Does it matter what you know? Can Jax not speak for herself? She obviously trusts me at least that far. You should too.”

“Jax doesn’t know any better!” Exasperation laces Emily’s words.

“What?” I’m not perfect and I make mistakes, but… “What does that mean, Emily?”

Her eyebrows draw together and she puts a hand on my shoulder. “You’re just… Your decisions aren’t always very reliable.”

I shake her hand away. “Well, this is my decision. Like it or not, this is the only way to get Jace back.” The warm friendship I’d been beginning to feel for her recedes a little. Emily is just like the rest of them, thinking I’m some fragile child. “So will your friends upstairs look the other way or not? We’ve got to get out of here.”

“I didn’t mean it like that…I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to get hurt,” says Emily.

“Stuff happens, no matter what you do. If anyone knows that, it’s me. I can’t sit here behind these walls while my brother is out there. Lir, alien or not, is the only way in I have. I know how to look out for myself.” Bringing my hands up, I place them on her shoulders and stare into her face. “If you can’t trust him, trust me. I can do this.”

Emily looks away and nods. “Okay.”

Emily isn’t quite sure where Brian’s loyalties lie and, even if I were sure of the two guards’ loyalties, they don’t seem very fond of aliens. Getting Lir up the stairs and out the door is going to be more complicated than we thought. We throw a couple ideas back and forth, but nothing that really seems feasible. Emily’s ideas mostly consist of getting more people to help, but that makes me uneasy, Lir too, though he doesn’t actually say it. The more people involved, the more potential for us to be caught.

“We’ve been down here too long,” says Emily. “Either way, they’re going to start getting suspicious, if they aren’t already. We could try again in the morning.”

“Sounds great,” says Lir, “except they plan to execute me in the morning.”

“Execute you?” It’s the first time Emily has looked even a little concerned for Lir’s safety and not just my own. “Without a trial? For what?”