SIXTEEN

 Of all the things I've done in the past week, this is my biggest lapse in judgment.

Still, I've snuck my way through the hallways, night having falling at it's latest hour; right at midnight. I could be walking into a trap, into a plot for Marek to try our escape so he can resume what his original plan was. Killing my Tani. Yet still, with one tentative foot in front of the other, I slip out through the empty kitchen downstairs, and outside.

Taius's demand echoes throughout my head, as I wrap my jacket tightly around my limbs, inwardly cursing my foolishness for coming out here.