“Thank you,” I whispered.

He shrugged, averting his eyes to the comatose ghosts beneath us.

“You look just like my brother,” he murmured, even as his gaze remained fixed away from me. His jaw tightened. “Though… if I remember rightly, you have your mother’s eyes.”

I nodded curtly. I still couldn’t quite believe that I was sitting before Lucas, my uncle.

“I have a sister, too. A twin sister. Rose.”

At this, Lucas’ eyes widened. “How did you ever end up in this place?” he wondered.

I really wasn’t in the mood to recount my whole saga, so it sufficed to say, “It’s a long story.”

“Hm,” he muttered. “And you spoke of… my sister’s newborn? Sh-She became a human? Who is the father?”

“Yes, my parents discovered the cure long ago,” I replied. “Xavier is the father. Xavier Vaughn.”

“Ah.” For the first time, a smile crossed his face. A faint one, but a smile nonetheless. “Xavier only ever did have eyes for her… She was just too blind to see it.”

Now I asked another question. “When you first saw me, why were you shouting that I wasn’t your son?”

“I got… confused.”

It was clear that was all the explanation he was going to offer me, so I was left to my own speculation about this.

A span of silence followed as Lucas drifted into his own thoughts. My mind turned back to Vivienne. It seemed that he really did hold a genuine affection for her, as opposed to my father. The only reason she and Lucas had clashed was because of my father. My aunt would invariably take my father’s side and that was what had caused the rift between them. Otherwise, I knew that my aunt had loved Lucas too. He was, after all, her older brother.

I had so many more questions to ask him, but the ghouls’ appearance just now was a reminder that I did not have all day. I needed to try to make my way back up to the higher levels without getting caught. And I had to keep fighting to escape, no matter what it took. Lucas seemed to have told me all he was willing to about his efforts to escape and the ghouls—and none of it had really been helpful.

“I-I think I need to leave,” I whispered. I hesitated before asking my next question. “Why… Why don’t you come up with me? It’s lighter up there, and there are people to talk to. You might feel, uh, slightly less insane. I’m sure you could merge in with the other ghosts without being—”

Lucas shook his head. “I can’t.”

An odd feeling of disappointment welled within me. “Then what?” I frowned deeply at him. “You’re just going to stay down here forever? You said that you already tried to escape a number of times, but how many years ago was that? You can’t stay here forever, Lucas.”

He shook his head again, resolute. “I’m long past thinking that I can escape this place,” he croaked. “But if you must… then you keep trying…” Then he paused, his eyes meeting mine again.

I could hardly blame him, but I felt frustrated all the same. “Well… I’m going to find a way out of here,” I said, though it felt like each time I made the affirmation to myself, I was saying it with less and less conviction. “If you change your mind about wanting to try one more time, or even just wanting to team up to help me figure this out, I’m in the topmost level, near the main entrance.” I couldn’t tell him which pool exactly—I had not been paying enough attention, so he would need to look out for me. But something told me he wouldn’t be leaving this pond anytime soon. Still, I couldn’t help but assure him, “If—when—I find a way, I’ll come back for you… Remember, if you escaped, you could look for your son.”

He nodded slowly, remaining stiff in his spot as I drifted away, though as I moved further into the center of the pool I could have sworn that an expression of conflict crossed his face. Almost as though he was considering whether he was making the right decision.

But he still didn’t budge.

Although he was behaving far, far more sanely now than when I’d first entered, it appeared that he was still too weak—both in mind and in spirit. My presence here for a span of minutes wasn’t enough to reverse years of being drained by this hellish place. Too much had been taken out of him.

As I reached the edge of the pool, on the verge of drifting out, I cast my eyes back at him. And I felt a stab of guilt. I couldn’t help but feel that once I was gone, it would be only a matter of hours before my uncle sank back into the darkness he’d been lost in for years.

Derek

Closing the door, I breathed out a heavy sigh. My nephew was going to be a lot of work, but I had already expected that.

Indeed, he had already caused Ibrahim and me a lot of work, even before we’d kidnapped him. His “dungeon” was actually a grain storage room, deep within the Black Heights. I’d asked the warlock to convert it and make it look as medieval as possible, to mirror the dungeon that Lucas had first taken Sofia to after he’d kidnapped her from Cancún… It felt appropriate.

I traveled along the winding corridor away from Jeramiah’s prison and stopped outside the door of another chamber, not far away. This little room—furnished simply with a bed, a chair and a table—was another storage room, also converted by Ibrahim to be my temporary residence. I walked inside and sat down on the bed, rubbing my temples.