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I look down atacies weren’t so farfetched I try to remember back to John’s backyard in Paradise, when Henri would lecture hi his power I squint hard and ball h it feels nuts and a little eain, just to see what happens

Nothing Just a soreness inthose acies That’s i desperate And maybe a little crazy

"Okay, Saether"

As soon as I lie back down, resigned to another endless stretch alone with h the floor This one is er than the first; I can feel it inIt coatsMounfire

This isn’t a dreaht froain--another explosion As long as I’ve been here, they’ve never done any kind of training or drills Hell, I never hear anything except the echoing footsteps of the guard bringing me ?

For the first time in--days? weeks?--I allow myself to hope It’s the Garde It has to be They’ve come to rescuemyself to move

I stand up and s feel like jelly I haven’t had htthe short distance of h to make my head swi for the dizziness to pass I can feel reverberations of the fight below passing through the er and more intense

"John!" I shout, my voice hoarse "Six! Anyone! I’m here! I’m in here!"

Part of me thinks it’s silly to cry out, as if the Garde could hear hting It’s that saive up, to just curl up in my cell and wait out my ultimate fate It’s the same part of me that thinks the Garde would be stupid to try to rescue me

It’s the part of ive in to that feeling of despair I have to prove hi

I need to ain "I’m in here, John!"

Weak as I feel, I pound ainst the steel bars as hard as I can The sound echoes throughout the empty block, but there’s no way the Garde could hear it above the h the walls It’s hard to tell over the increasing sounds of battle, but I think I hear footsteps rattling across the steel gangway that connects the cells Too bad I can’t see anything beyond the few feet in front of et their attention and just hope it isn’t a Mog guard

I grab my water bucket and dump out what’s left ofit against the bars of uy standing outside my door

CHAPTER TWO

HE’S TALL AND GAUNT, MAYBE A FEW YEARS older than s in front of his face It looks like he’s just been in a fight, dirt and sweat sed across his pale face I stare at hi since I’ve seen another person He looks almost equally surprised to seenot quite right

The slightly too pale skin The darkness around the edges of his eyes He’s one of the the eoing to clock hith I have left

"Who are you?" I ask, trying to keep uy replies He sounds uncomfortable, like he doesn’t knohat to say

Before I can ask who he means by "we," a man shoves him aside There are deep lines on his face, which is covered by a scruffy growth of beard My s open in disbelief and I take another step back into ain, but this time for a different reason I don’t knohy I expected hi in our fained this moment Years have passed, yet underneath the deep crevices I still recognize this man, especially when he smiles at me

"Dad?"

"I’m here, Sam I’m back"

My face hurts and it takes , in fact It’s the first tih the bars, the metal pressed uncomfortably into my ribs, but I don’t care He’s here He’s really here I’d fantasized about the Garde co to rescue me Never in my wildest drea ht that I’d be the one rescuing hi for you," I tell hiadorian is still hovering nearby and I don’t want hih the bars "You’ve grown up so much," he says, a note of sadness in his voice

"Guys," the Mog interrupts, "we have co into the cell block froway as they run up the ht here in front of adorian pulls my dad away fro

"Stand in the center of your cell and cover your head"