I couldn't help but openly gape at Marella. I mean, I knew she could fight, but I never knew that she could knock someone unconscious. And I saw no char marks or anything on the body, as she leaned over him. From his pocket, she produced a leaping crystal, then flung back his hood. I sucked in a breath. It was the same boy. The guy who attacked me in the sewer. His face was calm, and after examining him for a moment, Marella stood up, and held the crystal she had found on him, up to the light. She trained the blue beam of moonlight in front of our feet. She grabbed my hand, and it tingled upon contact.

   "Here we go," she muttered. Without a word from me, she pulled me forward, and into the light.

   When we arrived in the alley, I recognized it immediately. The smell of smoke filled my nostrils, and Marella dropped my hand.

   "Is there a fire?" she asked suddenly. I realized that she probably thought it had been somehow her fault.

   "Yeah. The hotel burnt down. Fintan got a little out of control when he chased me out of the room."

   "Wait, you stayed in the room when I got captured?" I couldn't read her voice. Though her words were accusing, her tone was genuinely surprised and impressed.

   "Yeah, I hid under the bed, and Fintan stayed at the room in case I came back. They looked for me, but didn't spot me." Now we were walking out of the empty alley, and into the still busy street. It seemed that the crowd had diminished slightly, but it was still hard to think. I raised my tone a bit. "I caught Alvar, and stole his leaping crystal, which led me to the room beneath that hole that we escaped through. You know what happened from there."

   "Wow," was her only reply. I guess she hadn't imagined that I had been the hero. "And, uh, thanks for coming for me. I wouldn't have gotten out without you."

   I highly doubted that. She was near the exit when I first saw her, and she did knock that guy out. I kind of just shrugged, until I remembered that I hadn't told her that I had seen that boy before.

   "Yeah, I forgot to tell you something." Her eyebrows sprung to the top of her forehead.

   "Go on."

   "That guy that you knocked out, that was awesome, by the way, was the clumsy guy that came at me in the sewers. He looked exactly the same." She opened her mouth, and I knew what she was about to ask, so I answered her question before she asked it. "I didn't see his eyes, he was unconscious when I got his hood off."

   She let out a big breath, then said. "Well, we'd better get away from here. If anyone sees two bedraggled teens on a crime scene, they might suspect something." Without a second thought, we walked out of the alley.

   Trudging along, through the ashen air, I wondered who the guy was. Could he be like us, kidnapped, and forced to join the Neverseen? Or was he a member of the Neverseen by choice. Could he be related to one of the members? I had never considered the possibility that one of the Neverseen members could have had kids. Other then Lady Gisela, I would have never guessed that they could have.

   Those thoughts were pushed away, as we walked towards another bus station. We took a few moments, and a lot of confusion to, figure out when the buses began running. We only had to wait for about half an hour. I sat, fidgeting with the hem of my shirt, shivering in the cool early morning air. I prayed, with all my heart, that the Neverseen wouldn't follow us.

   Surely enough, I heard the big bus, rumbling around the corner. It slowed to a halt, and the doors opened with a little puff!. People climbed off. Marella and I stood up and joined the line of people. A ramp came down and the line got smaller quicker and quicker. Finally, we boarded and I heaved myself up the final step, when Marella spun around, and rushed right into me.

   We toppled down the steps together. She fell on top of me, and into my arms, and a slight blush dusted over her face. I almost felt happy that she was so close to me. I relished those few milliseconds. But her embarrassment disappeared almost immediately.

   "Fintan. He's in—" she was cut short by Fintan himself.

   "Is everyone quite alright?" he asked in perfect English. It made me wonder if he might be a Polyglot. But those thoughts vanished, when I spotted him. A crowd had gathered around us and Fintan was pushing through it. He wore the conductor's uniform, and I shuttered to think what had happened to the person he had stolen it from. When he spotted us, his eyes narrowed.

   "Well, what do we have here?"