I woke up, my head splitting as pain rampaged around. Blinking, I tried to clear the fog that surrounded my vision. It was in the deepest parts of the night, thundering snores surrounded me in the dark. It took me a few minutes to come back to my senses and my eyes adjusted to the darkness. Thankfully I recognised where I was. It was one of the large halls that littered the castle, this one quite near to the rose chamber. It looked like we had shifted quite far away from the day. The snort of a man deep in sleep brought my attention back to what was around me. A squeak of surprise escaped my mouth as I looked around me. I looked like almost the entire village was here. And worse, Clarrisa slept just a few feet away from me. Before I could do anything else, the flickering of flames caught my attention as it grew brighter at the entrance at the farther side of the hall. Men. I suppose that they were at rounds.

Quickly I slipped back into the sheets as I pretended to lay asleep. The voices now closer had me stilling and they slowly came to a stop sounding like they were in front of me. Taking a deep breath and praying for courage, I peeked out of the folds of the blankets. Two men stood in front of me, in guard of their prisoner. A better look at them had me shaking in fear. It was Martha's husband and along with him stood the local barterer, Bernard. It took a lot of effort to still myself as my mind replayed the fury of Mason. The voices had me paying attention as they started speaking again.

"But, how could we have not known that we had such a terrible monster near our town?" Bernard spoke slowly, his voice coloured in disbelief as if he still couldn't believe what was happening.

"I have no idea, but that evil ought to perish." Mason's rough voice disfigured with hatred grated through the air.

Evil? He had called Adam evil when he himself was the very incarnation of evil? Anger shimmered in the depths of me aching to burst out. All I wanted to do was jump out and shout at the injustice of it all but common-sense warned me to remain silent.

"Poor Beau. I wish there was a way to remove him from the delusions that the devil has placed on him." Bernard sighed with a troubled face and shifted to look at him.

Hiding back in the blankets I waited.

"Poor boy? He himself is the spawn of the Devil. I say exiling him after all this is over will do the village plenty of good. After all he made my Martha turn against me!"

Bernard sighed again and turned away.

"By the way, do you know how that beast looks?" he asked Mason, his voice fainter.

I poked my head out of the blankets just in time to see Mason pass something to Bernard. As the light hit the object, I stilled my cry of surprise as I recognised what it was. Adam's mirror! How had the villagers gotten it? But what I saw next had the stilled cry slip out of me in a quiet gasp. It was Adam. The mirror showed a moving image of Adam, the scenery behind him very familiar. It was the rose chamber.

"Good gods! What a monstrosity!" Bernard quickly crossed to ward of evil.

"It was heaven blessed that, that boy, Ivan wasn't it? Gave us this. We would have else been doomed forever, not knowing this was here."

A small smirk loomed around Mason's lips as if he was enjoying the stark fear that Adam bloomed in the hearts of other.

But the other half of Bernard's words had me shocked. Yes, I knew that there was something wrong with Ivan, the way he had kidnapped Martha and me, but this?! Betrayal stabbed my heart and I realised something. All this was my fault. My bloody insistence of accepting Ivan even with Adam's cautioning me otherwise had brought this fate. Only if I had listened then, Adam would not have been in such danger now. Guilt hit me at full force ripping my heart to shreds.

I must have let out a noise because at once both Mason and Bernard turned back and looked at me.

"You are awake." Mason slowly spoke. "How long have you been awake?"

"Now, now Mason. Let the poor boy rest." Bernard hastily spoke alarmed at the rage in his voice.

"I said," Mason ignored him and continued. "How. Long. Have. You. Been. Awak-"

A crash at the entrance of the hall had them both whip their heads to it. Suddenly, as small shadow darted from the entrance and before anything else could be done, all hell broke loose.

Pandemonium ensured as men ran behind the shadow and the rest of the villagers awoke to the building chaos. Confusion reigned when more and shadows rushed into the hall. Both Mason and Bernard at once charged at the incoming flux of enemies forgetting all about me. Taking the chance to escape, I got up and ran towards the entrance.

"Beau!" I familiar voice had me stop in my tracks and spin around trying to locate the voice.

"Beau! Here!" I looked down to see James and Mr Clok by my side.

"Thank gods you are alright!" James cries as his flames flickered wildly in relief as we rejoiced in the reunion as much as we could in midst of a battle.

"Quick! We must get to master!" Mr Clok said as he pulled the now sobbing James along with him.

we hasted our pace but not two steps ahead and a roar sounded from behind.

"Stop!" I lurched, missing a step and Mason's furious voice and turned to see him barrel his way towards us with a small group in tow.

"Out of our way!" He shouted, insanity lighting up his eyes as he pushed away the fighting groups that stood in his way to us. With no time to think and fight or flight getting the best of me, I took off with James and Clok at my heels as we ran to Adam.