The walk to the dungeon area was eerily quiet, the pleasant ambiance of the bustling centaur den drowned under my own constant stream of worried thoughts. What would happen to me? What would happen to my mom? Why was Ruby suddenly so silent? Was Helena okay?

Was Liam? Did I want Liam to be okay?

The easy answer was of course not. He was horrible, annoying, and just plain confusing. But also strangely sweet at times. Rare times, but still. I found myself infinitely curious about that (very badly) hidden side of him. Then again, there were also parts of him I wanted desperately to avoid. Like that whole thing with Ruby.

Even the memory of it made me shiver, and my eyes darted over to her instinctively. Her head was still down, but I noticed her hand was clasped in Ant's. Before I could form a reaction to that, he stopped trotting and pulled his hand out of hers and planted it squarely on his hip.

We'd reached the darkened area, blocked off by a big steel door and a little sign that read, "Beware! Scary prisoners ahead" with a drawing of a frowning horse. It was cute, but I felt so sick with apprehension that I barely noticed.

Ant stuck a key in the lock and pulled open the door. There were lights, thank god, but they were dim, no more than bare bulbs swinging from the ceiling above each cell.

"Well. Here we are," he said, sounding duller and more subdued than I'd ever heard him. "I'll let you two pick your cells. It's two per room, definitely not because we're running out of space."

Ruby didn't even have anything snarky to say. She just lifted her head and glanced at the row of cells on the left, then on the right. Mutely, she walked over to the first cell on the right, one with a hunched over figure inside. I couldn't exactly make them out, but I figured I knew who it was.

"Okay if you're gonna choose him, you don't get to choose. You can go with the blonde one," Ant said, crossing his arms. In the dim light, I saw Ruby's fangs shine as she grimaced, then marched across the hall and down to the end of the row. Ant followed her, twirling a keyring lazily around his finger.

Leaving me, uncomfortably close to the first cell on the right.

I was sure it had to be Liam, but where were the stupid remarks? The constant stream of goofy nonsense? Even the raging temper? Was I mistaken, and this really was just some random vampire?

"You two weren't supposed to follow me." Ah, so it was him. The voice was familiar, but not the tone. Monotone and a little raspy. For the first time since I'd met him, I found that I wasn't scared of Liam in the slightest. He just seemed...defeated. And a little pathetic.

I edged closer to the cell. "Yeah, well. Ruby."

He let out a little huff of a laugh. "Yes. Ruby."

"So, uh....how've you been?" I asked lamely. He shrugged, and I saw him raise his head a little.

"Oh, I can't complain. Free bed, free food. I haven't gotten a break in ages, so this is nice." The sarcasm dripped from his voice like poison. I bit back a smile. It was a welcome change from the strange monotone.

"Oh yeah? So I guess you're thinking of staying here a while?"

"Nah, the staff's garbage. They treat me like some kind of prisoner," he said, and I thought I detected a bit of a smile in his voice too.

"Hmmmm, I wonder what that's like," I mused, tapping a finger against my chin. I heard a chuckle, an actual one this time.

"Shut up," Liam said, but fondly. I grinned.

"Great, so I take it you've chosen this one?" Ant said, sounding bored. I jumped. I hadn't even realized the centaur had returned. I wonder how long he'd been standing there.

I was about to say yes, before I wondered. Did I really want to willingly put myself in a closed space with Liam? I tried to stall while I searched for an answer to that.

"Well, I mean, wouldn't it be sort of dangerous to put a human in a cell with a vampire? Like, isn't that unethical or something."

I saw Ant scratch his head. "Oh wait, you're just human? That's...huh. Alright then. You can go."

Wait, what?

"Wait, what?" Liam echoed my thoughts. Which was very creepy, but I had bigger things to worry about. The centaur shrugged.

"We don't really use this place for humans. She's right, with all the creeps in here it can get kinda dangerous for them."

This was crazy. Did I seriously just get out of jail for being human? The very fact that had gotten me into this mess? "So what am I supposed to do now?"

Ant shrugged again, and started walking back towards the big entrance door. "I don't know, fuck around? I mean, you could find Oak, I bet she'd love to talk your ear off about something."

"What? What are you going to do?" I asked, still baffled.

"Sleep, probably," he said, reaching the door and holding it open for me. "Come on."

But...did I really want to leave? If I really thought about it, I wasn't sure.

I shook my head to dislodge the stupid thoughts. Because that was stupid, right? The centaurs seemed infinitely nicer than the vampires, so why would I want to stay with them? I wouldn't. I didn't.

I marched forward without a backwards glance, but my legs shook. I thought I heard Liam let out a sigh as the heavy door swung shut behind me, but that could have easily been my imagination.