'Remind me again why I have to go.'

Asher rolls his eyes for what must be the hundredth time this afternoon, undoubtedly a record for him. Emilio however is lounging on the sofa, playing around with the TV remote, trying to find some background noise so he can focus on the paperwork on his lap.

Asher is winding his coat around his shoulders, his school uniform folded neatly on the island in the middle of our kitchen. His new attire isn't that much different from usual, he still wears smart trousers, though these are blue, and he has on a white shirt underneath his grey coat. He topped it all off with brown boots that he said we would need for where we were going.

Apparently it was the same reason Emilio had forced me to wear my black boots, with my navy winter coat that matches my big brown tartan scarf and finally compromised by agreeing to my usual black jeans. It looks as if we've purposely coordinated outfits and I despise it. If it were up to me, I'd be in my pyjamas watching the new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and eating whatever junk food Emilio has stocked in the cupboards.

Instead, Emilio is insisting that Asher and I bond, and apparently we can't do this in the comforts of our own apartment. No, apparently the only way for Asher and I to become best friends forever, is to attend a winter wonderland maze.

Emilio found out online last night that everyone at Thorne was going besides me. So he wonderfully and generously signed me up when he was procrastinating paperwork.

Not only is that horrifying enough on it's own, but because Asher wanted me to bond with some of the senior class who are all attending, he was making us go with his minions, Cade, Phineas and Lennox, much to everyone's disdain and protests. He said they've been planning this trip for months, but I wouldn't put it past him to have done it just to spite me.

'Can't you come Leo?' I whine, since no one acknowledged my first complaint.

'You know I can't.' He says, hardly even looking up, 'I have too much to do, and if I come too, you'd have to take two cars. Also, this is the first time in years you'll get to do something fun without me.'

'Who says it's going to be fun?' I grumble.

Asher puts a hand on my shoulder and steers me towards the door. I hold out my arms like a zombie towards Emilio, hoping he'll crack a smile and tell me he's joking and let me stay home.

Before I reach the door, I bend down and scoop Neighbour into my arms, holding him tightly, 'I have a hostage, and I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to stay home!'

'Neighbour!' Emilio coos from the sofa and the cat jumps from my arms and goes to settle on Emilio's lap, who instantly begins to tickle under his chin.

'Traitor,' I hiss at the cat, 'When I get home, you're being tried for treason.'

'Don't forget gloves!' Emilio shouts after us and I kick the wall irritated, as Asher locks the door behind us.

'I at least call shotgun.' I say to Asher's back as he jogs down the stairs, too stupidly punctual. 'Also, last night, I swear we agreed we didn't even need to talk and now we're taking princess outings together? I said ignore me, not annoy me.'

'Could you stop complaining?' He remarks as he unlocks his car and climbs into the driver's seat, 'The boys and me and have had this trip planned for ages, there's going to be almost the entire sixth year there.'

'The boys and I.' I correct and he glares at me while reversing.

'Zia, please just try to have fun tonight, the boys promised to be on their best behaviour.' Asher says, speeding away towards the fancier parts of London.

'What did you tell them about us spending time together?' I ask, curious as to how Asher has managed to get the boys to agree to play happy families with me.

'I told them my aunt has offered me extra credit if I can get you on track, Miss Van Doren agreed to give them a glowing reference herself if they're nice to you until the end of term on Friday.' Asher explains, turning onto a cul-de-sac.

'How come you don't call her Ursula? Your aunt? She's always 'Miss Van Doren.' I say, and instantly I can tell I've made a mistake in asking.

His jaw clenches and his hands tighten on the steering wheel, 'It's just how it's ended up.' He quickly coughs and plasters a smile on his face, 'I'm going to make sure you have fun tonight. Emilio said the last time you had a night out doing something like this was the pride march in summer.'

'Is that a challenge?' I grin.

'Provided that you don't intentionally try to ruin the evening, it's a challenge I'll take you up on Castille.' He chuckles.

'Deal.' I reply, shaking his hand as he pulls up by a kerb and beeps the horn.

Almost instantly Lennox appears, Cade and Phineas in toe, all dressed up in posh outfits and trench coats that almost match Asher's. They look like some really shit boy band that just came fourth on The X Factor on a season that no one bothered to watch.

They shuffle together in the back of the car, all saying a warm and friendly hello to Asher and a curt, quick nod, or fleeting smile towards me. Asher waits until they're all buckled up before he sets off the hour drive up towards the field that Emilio promises looks like a lot of fun.

'So Raine,' Lennox begins, trying to remove the uncomfortable silence, 'How's your psychology paper coming along?'

'I wouldn't know, I haven't started it,' I say, despite having actually completed the same essay when I was fourteen, 'Have you finished yours already?'

'-I'm sorry.' Cade interrupts as Lennox begins to reply, 'Are we just expected to sit and have a civil conversation with you?'

'Cade.' Asher warns, looking at him in his rear view mirror.

'No, I'm sorry Ash, this is fucking nuts!' He fumes, clearly not welcoming my presence, 'She's done nothing but torture us for years, and now because your aunts giving you one more credit, she's our new best friend? You don't need any more extra credit.'

'I'm sorry, I've tortured you?' I interrupt, despite Asher's hand on my shoulder, trying to stop me from turning around to glare at him.

'Yes, that's absolutely correct.' He replies angrily, 'You've played target practice with my notebooks. You poured ketchup on my new uniform last spring. You've put a cow's lungs in my bag.'

'Actually, that was me.' Asher points out.

'Yeah, and the ketchup was me.' Phineas says.

'Whatever!' Cade shouts, staring around at his friends, 'Does it matter which of us she inflicted this on? She still did it.'

'I'm not defending her,' Phineas excuses, 'I'm just saying we should at least hate her for the right reasons.'

'Cade,' Asher interrupts, using his persuasive voice, 'It's not like we've not done anything back to her, is it? I'm not sure we can take the moral high ground on this one.'

'We've never done anything half as bad back, you're crazy thinking history can be rewritten, just for one credit.' Cade says, slumping back into his seat and folding his arms across his chest.

'What about the time we adjusted all the clocks in the hall for her makeup test so she sat at the desk for five hours? Or when we put a budgie in her locker and it crapped all over her books.' Lennox adds.

'We also stole her clothes when she was showering after gym.' Asher says, trying to hide the smile on his face.

'Right, fine.' Cade snaps, 'Take her side, why don't you.'

And that's the last thing Cade says before he spends the rest of the drive staring out of the window as the sky gradually becomes darker. In fact, by the time we pull up in the field alongside all the other cars we usually see in the Thorne parking lot, I can hardly see my hand in front of my nose.

That explains how I managed to fall straight on my face almost instantly. I ignore the chuckles of the trio as they walk towards the brightly lit entrance and pull myself back up.

'You're an idiot.' Asher laughs, grabbing my elbow and lugging me to my feet.

'Bite me.' I snap, a grin on my face, my knee throbbing.

'Come here.' He says, stepping closer.

Without warning, his arm snakes around my waist and he pulls my body up against his. One of his hands stows away in his pocket and the other keeps a tight grip on my hip. Normally in the freezing cold I would be thankful for the heat radiating from his body, but because it's Asher Thorne, I'd rather be naked in the arctic.

'What are you doing? Get off.' I say, squirming away from him.

'You've clearly proven to me that you need the assistance, so shut up and deal with it.' He replies, making sure that I cannot escape his hold.

The boys are walking a few feet in front of us and so they don't instantly notice our new way of walking, but as soon as we reach the queue, we receive odd looks from every single one of them, including the other students waiting to pay their fee.

No one has the nerve to mention it, given Asher's stern look, and so we wait quietly until a cheery man in an elf hat calls us forward and greets us. He begins to detail all the rules and attractions to the boys, but my attention is instantly drawn to the hats that are for sale on the desk.

I reach up, pulling a pair of antlers onto Asher's head, interrupting his sentence and almost pushing his glasses off his face. He attempts to bat my hands away but brings himself to show a lopsided smile as I pull a floppy Santa hat over my cold ears.

'What are you doing?' He chuckles, flicking one of his antlers and watching it light up, 'You know you have to pay for these.'

'I know.' I say, slapping down the money needed and grabbing a map for the maze.

Lennox throws himself into the swing of Christmas and buys himself a snowman headband, and even Phineas stretches as far to don a tinsel scarf. Cade however looks at us all, heartily unimpressed.

'Come on Cade,' Asher says waving a Christmas tree headband in his direction, 'Get into the holiday spirit.'

For the first time tonight, Cade flashes a smile and reluctantly puts the headband over his beanie hat. Phineas claps him on the back as we set off into the maze. Between the five of us, we have two maps, and so Lennox and I take to the front of the group to direct our way around.

Already we can hear the magical music wafting through the air, and I can see the ferris wheel over the tall trees. I can smell cinnamon and cotton candy and hot chocolate and the excitement causes me to be a little too giddy running away into the maze.

Ten minutes in however, Asher decides since I've already gotten lost four times, the map must be passed over to Cade, and Asher must hold my hand at all times, much to my refusal.

'You're ruining my fun.' I whine, tugging my hand to try and wrestle it away from Asher's viper like grip. When this doesn't work, I take to whipping the bell at the end of my hat in his direction.

'You're an actual child.' Asher chuckles, dodging my blows.

'How can you hate children? They're essentially tiny humans who only want to have fun. You don't like cotton candy and ferris wheels? Liar.' I grumble. 'Let go.'

'Will you promise that you won't run off again?' Asher says, stopping and holding up our joined hands for me to see, a stern look on his face.

'I'm afraid I can promise no such thing.' I say, wiggling his arm again.

'Then you're stuck with me princess.' Asher replies in a melodic sing-song voice and a skip in his step.

I follow, chuckling towards the ground until I feel a sharp tug on my arm and Asher stops dead in the middle of the maze. I look up to see him spinning around wildly, dragging my arm with him.

'Could you be careful? I'm royalty, you know.' I hiss so no one else but Asher can hear me.

'This is brilliant, fucking brilliant.' Asher says, running a hand through his hair. 'The boys are gone.'

'Actually, I would define that as brilliant, I don't know why you're making it sound so sarcastic.' I reply, rolling my eyes and brushing some fake snow off my santa hat.

'They have the map.' He sneers, 'They're the only ones who can get out of here.'

'I would've had the map if you hadn't have taken it away from me.' I point out.

'Okay, in life or death situations people instinctively go towards a low sun.' Asher says, looking around and squinting at the dark sky.

'It's nighttime.' I argue, 'And it's not life or death, we're just stuck in a maze.'

'If you're not going to help, then be quiet.' Asher says, dragging me down a line, and bumbling about how he swears he's already seen this identical row of trees.

'I have a way we can get out of here.' I nudge him, pulling him away from his obsessive glaring at the forest.

'Unless it's a map, I don't think I want to hear it.' He holds up a hand and pulls me down another row. Instead of going along, I sharply drag back his arm until he's facing me.

Accidentally, I pull him a little harder than I mean to, and his front ends up clashing into mine, his face merely inches away. I glance towards my feet and then back up to Asher, whose eyes are full of amusement, clearly enjoying my embarrassment. I take a step backwards and this time Asher lets my hand go.

'I have a game.' I clear my throat, 'Every time you answer a question, you get to choose if we turn left or right.'

'Why would you want to play that?' Asher frowns, stepping closer to look me right in the eye, 'It's a dangerous game Zia.'

'The way I see it,' I reply, confidence overtaking and pushing myself further forward to get right in his face, 'You know almost everything about me, and I'll bet you have some questions about that file. But I know almost nothing about you. And I think it's time to change that.'

'Okay, who gets to go first?' He grins, accepting my dare.

'Me, since you're the reason we're lost in the first place.' I say, despite Asher's mumbling that it was my fault if you think about it, 'When did you actually join the ACS? When did they recruit you?'

'It was the summer when I was fourteen. I spent the whole holiday away at training.' Asher says and directs us right, away from a couple who are holding onto each other and giggling, 'Your file says no one's heard from Charlie since he disappeared, has he reached out to you?'

'You're going straight in with the hard hitting questions, huh?' I ask and Asher shrugs, nudging his scarf off his shoulder, 'No, I've not heard from him. Left.' I direct us.

'I don't think it counts if you lie to me.' Asher looks at me, but I refuse to meet his eye. He does however comply, and turns left anyway, 'It's your turn.'

'First kiss?' I ask, trying to pull the conversation away from any mention of my brother, since I know if Asher finds out he's been in contact with me, he'll have to tell my dad.

'Lennox.' He chuckles and I stare at him, slightly aghast, 'It was a dare. Go right. Your first kiss?'

'Lennox.' I grin. Asher stops dead in his tracks. I can only contain my laughter for a few seconds, 'I'm kidding. It was the french ambassador's son back when we were twelve, before everything happened. What's your full name? I don't think I know your middle name.'

'I'm not answering that.' He says.

'Then you don't get to ask a question for five minutes.' I shrug.

'Those weren't the rules!' He grumbles, but waits a few seconds before replying, 'My full name is Asher Gillespie Teddie Thorne.'

'What? Your middle name is Teddie!' I laugh, 'Explain please.'

'It's Gillespie and Teddie actually, it's a family thing. All my grandfathers had Gillespie in their names.' He pouts, 'It's a tradition. You should know that it's regal, as you taught me this afternoon it's the name of my forefather, the first Thorne who was recognised as a royal clan by your family.'

'It's not Gillespie that makes me laugh, it's Teddie.' I chuckle.

'Alright, alright, it was my father's idea. I know it's ridiculous. He never got the chance to explain to me why. I would get rid of it, but it's like, the only thing he ever gave me, so just let it go.' He smiles, but still shoves my shoulder, 'I bet yours is worse anyway, what is it?'

I check around to make sure no one is in earshot, 'Introducing Your Royal Highness, Marzia Minnie Beatrice Erin Annie Castille, the soon-to-be crown princess of Alania.'

Asher barks a laugh, 'Minnie? You have Minnie and you're going to make fun of Teddie? They're equal levels of insane, but I'd say I win on account of the fact that yours takes far longer to say.'

'Is lasting long a common issue for you Thorne?' I tease him and he shoves me so hard I have to prop myself back up against the bush, 'I'll have you tried for-'

'Treason, yes I know, I know. I forget you're royalty now, so I have to be nice to you.' He says sadly.

'Wait, so you're telling me that this is the asshole turned down? I don't know if I believe you.' I say, and duck as he goes to swat my arm. 'We do however need to talk about your physical abuse for a soon to be monarch.'

'Yeah, yeah, whatever.' He smiles, ignoring me and taking up his turn, I'm gonna need you to explain your name to me. You have to give me some context to Minnie if you're going to laugh at Teddie.'

'Well, Beatrice was the name of grandma's mother, Beatrice Grimaldi, so there's her. Then Erin is my mum's mum, Erin Ainsworth, so that's two grandparents. Annie is a twist on Anne, which has been a royal name in my family for generations, so that one was obvious.' I pause, taking a breath.

'And Minnie?' He pushes.

'My mum was really sick of royal traditions by the time I came along. All our first names were already decided, then Christopher had to have the middle name Etienne, and Charlie had to have Abbington. She got so fed up of being told what to name her children, that she had a bit of a moment.' Asher raises an eyebrow, 'She let Chris and Charlie pick a middle name for me. They were big Mickey Mouse fans.'

'At least both of our dumb names came from something good.' Asher smiles, 'Am I allowed to start calling you Minnie Mouse now?'

'Just know if you do, I'll call you Teddy Bear.' I warn him and he backs off, 'Who's turn is it?'

'It's mine, if you don't count getting sidetracked.' He says, and we reach a particularly long line of firs, and he looks down either way before nudging my arm, 'Who was your last relationship with?'

'Does my long standing relationship with our takeout delivery man count? Left.' I say.

'Wait, you've never had a proper relationship?' Asher interrupts, stopping us in our tracks once more, 'All this time? You're eighteen. One poor bastard has got to have taken pity on you.'

'Would you like me to change my answer?' I say, facing him. 'Firstly, I'm a princess, I can't exactly have a normal teenage relationship, secondly I'm actually still seventeen, and thirdly, why is that so hard to believe? You've been the leader of the 'avoid Marzia' campaign for years. Of course no one wanted to come near me.'

'We didn't call it 'avoid Marzia'.' Asher grumbles, 'We didn't know that was your name.'

'You're an asshole.' I laugh, shoving him in the shoulder and setting off away from him to try and get out of this stupid maze.

He catches up with me quickly, and takes my hand once more. I would complain except for the fact that it makes it easier to drag Asher here and there. Also the warmth from his palm has a funny way of spreading through the rest of my body.

'My turn,' I grumble, making sure that any movement I do, I make jerky to hurt his shoulder. Asher doesn't notice and keeps the smile on his face, 'Have you ever been tortured?'

'That's what you're asking? That's a little heavy.' He asks me and rubs his forehead, 'Luckily no. Almost once, and it still haunts me. But no, and I thank God everyday for that.'

'You believe in God?' I raise an eyebrow.

'Hey, it's my turn to ask a question.' He says and bumps my hip, 'You ever have therapy for what happened to you? The torture, I mean. I couldn't sleep properly for months.'

I try not to let my face register the shock that Asher seems to be opening up a little, 'When I first moved to London I saw a therapist a bit, but not anymore. There's not a lot of people we trust for me to tell everything to. Except Emilio, I guess.'

'You ever wish you could've talked to someone?' He presses, and I don't mention that technically it's not his turn to ask.

'I think I could've, if I asked.' I shrug, 'Didn't you?'

'They made me sit down with someone after, to make sure I was still fit to work. I told them I didn't need any help.' He sighs, 'I just didn't want to lose my job. I was sixteen, and I slept outside Miss Van Doren's bedroom door for weeks. I never told her, then she nearly tripped over me one morning.'

'Why didn't you tell her?'

'Miss Van Doren was only twenty-nine when she was landed with me. She hadn't settled down, or planned on having kids, and then all of a sudden she had a seven year old orphan.' I've never heard him refer to himself as an orphan before, 'I didn't want her to resent me, so I've just tried to be as little trouble as possible. I didn't know how to act when I got older. She's not my mum, but I don't have one, so who was she?'

'She's still your family, who loves you.' I tell him, looking at him with a sympathetic look. He smiles as if he already knows I'd say this and nods his head.

'I know she does. I'm lucky.' But I don't believe him, 'Can you ask a lighter question this time?'

'Okay, let me think.' I pause, wondering which of my questions will ease him back into the lighthearted conversations we're used to, 'What's your favourite Christmas song?'

'That one's way too far now, Z.' He smiles warmly, despite the clouds of smoke that release from his lungs when he breathes, 'I feel like someone has to break it to you that not everyone is as obsessed with Christmas as you.'

'How do you know I'm obsessed with Christmas? Is that in the file too?' I roll my eyes, wondering which year Emilio will have listed Christmas as one of my favourite pass times. Maybe my dad wrote it as a footnote in case I ever needed cheering up, Christmasses with dad were always something out of fairy tales. Or maybe they weren't, but my brain made it up to comfort myself on the Christmasses he wasn't there.

'It's not in your file. I just know you a bit more than you think.' I frown at him, doubting his sudden understanding of me, 'I'm serious. Don't you remember our fifth year? You interrupted the careers assembly by linking your phone to the bluetooth speakers and playing Fairytale of New York. Then you got mad when Cade sang the bad word in it.'

'It's a derogatory, homophobic word.' I defend.

'I know it is. You gave him a half an hour lecture, I was there for it.' He laughs, 'You told him he wasn't going to ruin your favourite time of year, and when Miss Van Doren sent you for detention to clean the art rooms, you painted him in an elf costume and hung it in the great hall.'

'I have no regrets, your career speech was so long and so, so boring. I think I still have that painting somewhere at the apartment, though. I'll send it over with my well wishes when I'm home.' I consider it, despite the fact that it has a small hole in the top corner from where Cade threw it across the common room at me, 'Anyway, you dodged the question.'

'Favourite Christmas song?' He asks, and I nod, 'You nailed it at the assembly, it's Fairytale.'

'Why?'

'Not your turn.'

'I'm the queen.'

'That's not how this works, and no you're not.' He grumbles, 'I don't know really, I think it's the Christmas song for the people who hate Christmas songs.'

'If you hate Christmas songs, I hate you.' I mutter, because the only people who don't love Christmas are big green men with hearts three sizes too small.

'Turn right,' He says, following a string of fairy lights that bend around the corner, 'I did have a question about the file actually, it said something about a pending application you and Emilio put in, but it doesn't say what it is. What's the Bowen report?'

I look down at the ground, not wanting to think about Emilio at home waiting for an application to tell him whether or not he has to give up his dream to stay with me. I bet he's sitting by the fire doing the work, and trying his best to keep himself focused so his doubt doesn't creep back in. I suddenly feel a strong urge to ask Asher to take me home.

'I'm not sure,' I lie, 'Probably just some request for the heating in our apartment to work during the winter. They codename everything nowadays.'

'So I've gathered, I've been Agent Thirteen in the agency for years, and I could never tell you why until this afternoon.' He tells me, and turns left, despite me not having told him to, 'I'm starting to think that this game is getting us more lost than found.'

'I'm not in a rush.' I smile, not wanting to admit that Asher won the bet - I am actually having a nice time. Asher looks over with his cold pink cheeks and pointed red nose and smiles softly. His glasses steam up everytime he breathes and so he pushes them further up his nose, away from his scarf to look up at the night's sky.

He adjusts his hold on my hand and I notice that despite our conversation having extended longer than the game intended, neither of us have taken particular attention to where we're walking. We reach a junction and he ducks us under an archway made of branches. A kid runs past it, and his mum and dad dodge past us, holding hands and laughing. I notice the way both of us watch after them, longing for a family unit we've both so long gone without.

'Why did you insist on me coming tonight?' I ask absentmindedly.

'That's what you're asking?' He frowns, swinging our arms between us.

'Just answer the question.' I nudge his shoulder.

'The truth?' He says, 'You somehow managed to hide from me for six years, and I'm trained to spot specifically that in a crowd. I know Raine, but not Marzia at all, and I just want to actually know you a bit before you leave forever.'

'Just so you can feel less obtuse for not realising it was me all along?' I ask.

'Something like that.' He says. He turns to me, all of a sudden very close, 'You've always got a smart answer for everything, don't you?'

'Something like that.' I reply, a smile plastered on my face.

Just as Asher opens his mouth to give me some sarcastic response, I freeze and stare around, watching Asher panic and do the same.

I step back, wildly spinning, 'What's going on?' He asks, grabbing my arm urgently and turning his voice to a whisper, 'Marzia, tell me what's going on.'

'Snow Cones.' I hiss.

'What?' He snaps.

'I smell Snow Cones.'

Before he can grab me, I run towards the scent and within seconds the exit to the maze and the snow cone vendor are in sight. Asher is furiously calling my name and charging after my footsteps.

I approach the man holding the rainbow coloured ice and hand him some money. Asher stands beside me with a sour look on his face, his hands angrily stowed away in his coat, tutting every few seconds.

'Come on Thorne, cheer up. It's Christmas!' I beam, swirling the ice around my tongue, savouring the delicious flavour.

'I don't even know how you managed to smell that, it's literally frozen water and food colouring.' Asher grumbles, stabbing his ice with a murderous look in his eyes.

'She has the nose of a bloodhound.' Comes a voice from behind us, 'And the bite of one too.'

The familiar tone sends a chill down my spine and I nearly drop my snowcone from the shock of him being here. Asher's frame hardens and he puts an arm between me and the voice. I take a deep breath and turn around to see him.

'You couldn't have called?' I deadpan, lifting my eyes to meet him.

He's older than the last time I saw him, obviously, but he seems to have aged more than ever since the summer. His face has more scars than before and the wrinkles around his eyes are prominent as he shows me his toothy grin, one of the teeth unnoticeably plastic. I remember him telling me a story about it last winter.

His hood is pulled over his head but his jet black hair falls in wet clumps in front of his vibrant green eyes. They're bright with secrets the way they always are and his stance looks ready to run, probably in response to Asher's glare.

'And given you a chance to run away? Where's the fun in that?' He grins.

His voice is a whisper over the sounds of screaming coming from a nearby snowball fight and his 's's whistle with the cold. I'm somehow also able to block out whatever Asher is hissing in my ear in spite of his harsh tone. My tunnel vision is focused on the boy.

He's a smaller build than Asher by far, but I know for a fact that the boy is faster. He's not stupid either, he knows how dangerous appearing here is, and I can't help but let my heart skip knowing there must be some important reason he's here. He knows if he can't disappear from here, if Asher gets him and realises who he is, we're bust. I know he wouldn't risk that for nothing.

'You know I've never been one to run away.' I tell him, wondering for a moment whether he is here to deliver good news he can't risk on the phone, or bad news he can't bring himself to text.

'I hear you're going home.' He says.

This comment makes Asher's attention heighten and his grip on my arm gets tighter. He stands his body in between us so I can only see the boy over his shoulder. He lowers his neck so he's staring right at me, trying his best to keep my eyes on him.

'We're leaving now.' Asher growls.

'I see you got yourself a pet.' The boy says.

'You best tell me who the fuck you are right now, or disappear before I have the chance to get it out of you myself.' Asher snarls, turning around and grabbing a fistfull of his jacket. It only serves to accentuate his skinny frame that I remember holds more power than it appears to.

'You gonna tell him or am I?' He asks, amused over Asher's shoulder. I look down at the ground, knowing this can't end well, and knowing the boy won't hesitate for a second to cause trouble that I'll have to clean up, 'I'm Loki Montero, it's nice to meet you.'

Crack.

I told you this couldn't end well.

Loki stumbles backwards from the force of the punch, and out of nowhere appears Cade and Phineas, pulling Asher backwards. His fists are still balled up and his eyes turn murderous as he watches me pull Loki to his feet, dusting the snow from his back as if he'd fallen off his bike as a kid, not just been punched in the face by an ACS agent.

'Get the fuck back! Stay the fuck away from her!' Asher shouts, suddenly getting the attention of everybody in the entire park. Lennox is standing in front of Asher trying to distract his attention away from me and Loki, which only serves to make him more mad, especially since his glasses have fallen off and he can't see anything anymore.

'Might be time to run.' I say, pushing Loki away from me.

'You have to find a way to come see me. I can't get to Alania at Christmas, you know I can't get within a mile of that place.' Loki says, suddenly dropping his bravado. He pauses, grabbing my arm, 'Z, I found him.'

And with that he takes off, into the crowd that has formed around us. He disappears entirely, like he always does. There's a weight in my pocket, my hands feel something smooth but I can't pull it out to see what it is before Asher yanks me backwards.

'We're leaving. Now.' Asher states, brushing past the boys and charging towards the exit.

'Asher, where are you going? We've been looking forward to this for months, and now someone looks at your girl the wrong way, we've all got to ditch?' Cade shouts after us, trying to keep at our pace.

'Cade listen, you're either coming now or you get a lift from someone else. Can you do that?' Asher bellows at his friend.

His grip on my arm is starting to hurt and the look in his eye scares me. Cade mutters something and storms off the other way, leaving Lennox and Phineas frightened onlookers. Asher doesn't stop to comfort his friend and within minutes we're in the car, his reindeer antlers thrown into the back seat.

He uses his fancy car console to dial Emilio's number as we drive. I notice as the call connects, and I panic, and quickly press the hang up button. The fury in Asher's face makes me think he's about to crash the car with the attention he takes away from the road and focuses on me.

'What are you doing?' He spits.

'Please don't tell Emilio.' I plead. Asher looks as if I've just told him I've murdered someone, 'Look, Loki shouldn't have shown up like that, but he's not a threat to me anymore, he's helping me.'

'Oh, and you're gonna repay him by being his punching bag again?' He fumes, swerving to avoid a bend in the road he didn't notice looking at me.

'That report doesn't tell the whole story, I can't tell you what really happened, but please trust me.' I say, slapping his hand away as he attempts to call Leo again.

'How am I meant to trust you when you won't tell me the truth?' Asher says, 'You're asking me to trust you on something you can't tell me about.'

'If I tell you, will you keep it between us?' I ask desperately, lowering my voice.

Asher doesn't reply for a while. Instead, he just reduces his speed a bit on the winding roads. The night is so dark that the only thing I can see is what the light from the car illuminates in front of us. That's why I only realise we've pulled up in a car park when the car stops.

'Okay, but you have to tell me everything.' Asher says more seriously than I've ever seen him, 'Starting at the beginning.'

I take a deep breath, ready to tell a secret I have kept between only Emilio and I for four years.

'Back when Charlie had to disappear, Loki helped him. Chris was his friend and he'd made Loki promise to help Charlie and I if something ever happened to him.' I swallow, knowing that aged only nineteen years old, Chris was preparing for his death.

'Loki found me when I was fourteen, and said he could help me find the people who had killed Chris. Until they were gone, Charlie wasn't safe to come home, and that's all I wanted. I needed him back. Loki was going to help me.' I pause for a moment, 'If we could find and expose the killers, Charlie could come home. But until it was safe, Charlie had to stay hidden. So Loki had to get into the network to find out what happened.'

'You let yourself get hurt, to protect Charlie?' Asher asks carefully. I nod, tears dangerously close to falling.

'Loki was living in Paris, mainly as a thief and he heard whispers of an agency that were trying to bring down the Alanian royal family.' I look down, 'The word was that they'd been responsible for killing Chris. Loki made himself known in Paris, trying to get their attention, and eventually it worked.'

'They contacted him and he was told there was a sort of interview, they called it a Cutting Ritual, to prove you were worthy.' I swallow, 'The initiation was to kidnap someone important, and torture them into releasing important infomation. I couldn't ask Loki to hurt anyone for me, so I told him it had to be me.'

'It was either you or someone from the Alanian royal clans?' He asks.

I nod, 'Loki had to get information somehow, and we couldn't risk hurting someone so they actually gave up valuable information, and I didn't want him to. The only problem was that Loki didn't know that the Cutting Ritual came in two parts. The first part was getting the information, but the second part was much more dangerous.'

'I doubt it.' Asher tuts, still not on board with my frame of thinking.

'The second part was designed to see how well Loki could do under pressure but he didn't know it at the time.' I explain, 'We waited until Emilio and I were on holiday in France, so no one could trace me back to London, for him to hurt me. We didn't know, but someone from his agency had followed him to where he was torturing me, and called the police.'

'What? Why?' Asher asks, confused.

'It was to see how he could manage on the run, being chased.' I repeat what Loki and I learned afterwards, 'The police burst in and he ran, and I was rescued. The agency had screwed up though, because they didn't realise that he had me. From then on, Loki was shown to be the only one who'd ever been able to successfully hunt me down after I disappeared from Alania. They trusted him implicitly, and he became more ingrained in their agency than we could've ever hoped.'

'So your plan worked better than you thought it would.' Asher nods, running a hand through his hair as he begins to understand.

'After he hurt me, and filmed it, he was more than in. He's been so deep in the network ever since that he only sees me twice a year, Christmas Eve and Chris' birthday in the summer.' I explain, skipping as much of the pain as I can.

'That's why he came tonight? He needed to see you before you went away?' Asher works out. I shake away the tears and clear my throat.

'He tells me if he's heard anything from Charlie, and tells me what the network knows, and what they're figuring out. He's been keeping them away from London for years Asher. He could've killed me a hundred times, and he hasn't. He's not the enemy here.' I swear.

'You can't see him again Marzia.' Asher says, 'It's too dangerous, promise me.'

'Okay,' I say, gripping tightly to the fake passport in my pocket, 'I promise.'

Asher seems to take this as gospel, and starts the car up again, stopping briefly to put a hand on my knee to show me support for my decision. It's only when we reach the outskirts of London does Asher speak again.

'Has Loki found your brother?' He asks.

'No.' I lie.