For the second time in two days, I woke with my head on Ash's shoulder and his arm around me as he slept. I was warm and blissful for about five seconds; then I remembered where we were.

We needed to get home. I wanted to check on Mom and make sure she was alright. Ash didn't think the Seer could've done anything to her when they spoke, but knowing it was that easy for him to get to her had me on edge.

I couldn't bear to think about Mark. I was so worried last night, Ash wanted to help me sleep, but I wouldn't let him. Mark came here for me and ended up in danger. Hopefully, he's not anymore. He's with Tate, and everything went according to plan.

We all spent the night hiding, which wasn't bad. Ash and I found a spot next to a creek where we could sleep against the bottom of a hill. The sound of the water was nice; it was peaceful.

We talked late into the night about everything that happened and then about nothing important. There was a little kissing, which was great, but mostly we just held each other. We were too worried about our friends to really get into any shenanigans.

Thinking about shenanigans, I wondered how Mark's night with Tate went. There was definitely something going on between them. I saw it when we were all caged together but never got to ask Mark about it.

I asked Ash, but he wouldn't tell me much. He doesn't like to share other people's feelings. I guess I get that, but I really want to know if they like each other the same way.

I saw the hand-holding and close-talking, but Tate's such a flirt I didn't know if he was serious. Judging by his reaction when Ash woke him up yesterday, I'd say he's definitely into Mark.

As soon as his eyes popped open, he lost his crap. He was on top of Ash so fast I could barely follow the action. I didn't think he'd really hurt Ash, they're like family, but it looked like he thought about it.

He got in his face, "How could you do that to me, knowing how I feel?"

Ash looked like he felt guilty but told him he was afraid they'd make him fight Mark, and if they took two of us, we never would have been able to get away.

He left out the part where it was Mark's idea to knock him out, which I thought was nice of him. Ash told him we'd get him back. We just had to get out of our cage first.

That was all it took. It turns out a motivated Tate is a smart, quick planning Tate. We were out of our cage and gone within a couple of minutes. After that, Ash and I had our job to do, and Tate went to get Mark.

We were going to meet up soon, and we'd all go home together. I couldn't wait for Clara to see Mark and Tate together.

I had no idea how we were going to explain our absence. I couldn't care about that yet. I just wanted us all home and safe; anything beyond that was something to figure out later.

Without moving, Ash spoke, "Are you alright? Your emotions are all over the place."

I smiled up at him, "I thought you were sleeping. I was just thinking everything over; it's all a little hard to believe."

"It is a lot. It'll be over soon, though. We're just going to follow this creek to the place where we're meeting Tate and Mark."

I hopped up and straightened my dirty, slept in clothes. I was going to have to trash this outfit when we got back, there was no washing out this level of gross.

"Let's get going then, I'm ready to see our friends."

Smiling, he got up and took my hand, "Me too." Reaching over he felt gently around the corner of my eye, "The swelling is down. There's a little bruising though." Next, he stared at the split on my lip.

Before he could get too worried about it and start cataloging all of my injuries, I leaned up and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "It'll heal. Let's go find our friends."

He smiled, "Yes, let's."

We walked for a while without incident until Ash started glancing behind us. At first, I thought he was just careful, but then he started to look confused.

"What's wrong?" I whispered.

"I keep thinking I feel someone's emotions."

"Maybe it's some faerie out for their own reasons that just happens to be near us." I knew I was being more hopeful than realistic, but we were due for a break.

"We're near a creek. It could be someone who lives near the water source." Putting his arm around my shoulders, he pulled me to his side as we walked and gave me a squeeze. "You're right; it's probably nothing."

I smiled up at him, feeling better. Maybe I'm not being too hopeful.

"I'm just going to check closer to the creek and make sure I don't feel anything. You stay here in the trees just in case."

"I'll go with you."

"No," he shook his head. "I know you can take care of yourself, but I'd rather if you didn't have to. Plus, if there's a trap, we don't need to walk into it together."

"Fine," I huffed. If he wanted to be all reasonable, I guess I'd wait.

I stood behind a tree and peered around the side to keep an eye on him. He only had about fifteen feet to go until he reached the water's edge.

He was in the open with nothing to hide him. I held my breath and listened carefully. A tap on my shoulder had my heart in my throat as I spun around ready to fight.

Tate easily caught my fist, again. "You're always trying to hit me," he grinned, and I threw my arms around him in a hug.

"Where's Mark?" I looked behind him and he wasn't there. I felt the color drain from my face.

"It's OK. He's just a little behind me."

"Why?"

Ash came back from the water and gave Tate a big smile, "Finally! I was starting to worry. Where's Mark?"

He hadn't told me he was worrying. I gave him an annoyed look before answering him, "He said he's behind him, but he didn't say why yet."

"Because he ran off and left me."

I almost shoved Tate out of the way to get to Mark. I stopped right before I could throw myself at him; something was wrong. He was leaning to the side, and he looked pissed.

"What happened?"

"I'm OK, manita, come here," he put his arms out for a hug and I was so happy I could have cried. I hugged him gently because I wasn't so sure he was OK.

"I didn't run off and leave you. I could hear these two pounding through the woods and I wanted to make sure it was them, and we weren't walking into a trap before you got too close."

"I could have helped you," Mark sounded angry.

I pulled back to look at him and noticed terrible bruising on his chest. Taking a step back, I could tell that it seemed to be one big shape. It looked kind of like, "Holy crap! Is this a footprint? Did someone step on you?"

"Yep," he looked down, and Tate stepped over and took his hand.

"When I got there, he was already fighting." Tate looked at Ash, "Sarsen."

Ash inhaled quickly, his eyes widened, and he looked at Mark like he'd never seen him before. "You're lucky to be alive."

Mark looked annoyed but didn't say anything.

Tate smiled, "Luck had nothing to do with it. Sarsen took a beating." There was no mistaking the proud tone in his voice.

Ash looked impressed too. "That's amazing! No one usually even gets a hit in before they're knocked out or killed."

"Yeah, well, don't be too impressed. Tate left out the part where the damn giant was standing with one foot on my chest, squashing the air out of me."

"Giant? Like a real giant?" I asked.

Ash nodded, "Sarsen is fae, but he's large. Fights with him don't last long."

I looked over Mark again. "What happened to your leg? You're not standing straight."

A high pitched voice answered, "Sarsen lifted him by his ankle and held him up for us. It was amusing."

We all turned to face the Queen, who stood there smiling like a hunter who'd just found her trap full. Ash stepped in front of me as Tate moved to block Mark from her view.

I didn't know what the big deal was. She was alone; this seemed perfect. Surely she couldn't do anything to stop all of us at once.

Then I heard the movement of wings and someone landing behind me. I turned ready to fight, but it was Hedera. She was standing there looking sad. She wore a strange belt covered in pockets full of dirt; each one had a little vine poking out of it.

Crap. She didn't need a bunch of guards, she had the one that could catch all of us in a matter of seconds. Especially when the guys who could be fast enough, wouldn't want to do anything to hurt her.

"I don't think it was funny. When we left Sarsen, he wasn't laughing anymore either." Tate sounded like his usual cocky self, but his stiff posture told me he wasn't as relaxed as he was pretending to be.

The Queen hardly spared him a glance, but the calm mask she was wearing started to slip. Her mouth was pulled into a grim line, and her pale blue eyes narrowed. "The four of you have caused a much bigger problem than I was expecting."

"We didn't start this. If you had left Jolie alone none of this would have happened." Ash wasn't as good as Tate at hiding his anger, he sounded livid. Of course, he had to deal with all of our emotions, not just his own.

As soon as I was reminded of that I tried to focus for a few seconds on nothing but how much I love him. He glanced back at me with a small smile, and I knew he appreciated the break in the negative feelings. I hoped it would keep him from getting overwhelmed.

The Queen didn't like that his attention was drawn away from her. Raising her voice, she said, "My Dream Walker, all I wanted was your loyalty, you owe me that. I was even going to let your pet live. After your warrior friend and his little human were dead, I could have considered you both punished."

She spoke like that was totally reasonable. Like she really thought Ash would have been loyal to her after she had our friends killed. I was starting to think she had no concept of loyalty or family.

She shook her head sadly, "Now you've gone too far. Escaping and then embarrassing me with this disrespect of the trials, you leave me no choice. I'll be expected to kill you all. I won't, of course, I'll pardon you, Dream Walker, because I need you. Unfortunately, the rest of you will have to die. Hedera, tie them up!"

Everything happened at once. Ash and Tate moved to block us from Hedera's painful vines. We were shoved toward the trees like they expected us to run, neither of us did.

Hedera threw her hands up and her vines burst from their little pockets. She swung her arms toward us and I braced myself for the stinging pain. The vines shot past us, all four of them wrapped around the Queen. We all looked at Hedera in shock.

"What are you doing, you imbecile! Let me free before I'm forced to kill you too!" The Queen's calm mask was completely gone, she was enraged, and she wasn't even trying to hide it. She was twisting in pain, but I couldn't really feel bad about it, that was supposed to be all of us.

Hedera whispered, "Please, take me with you."

"What?" The Queen screamed.

Tate grinned, "We'd be happy to."

Hedera's shoulders sagged with relief.

"Sweet! Let's get the hell out of here," Mark sounded as happy as I felt.

Finally, something was going right for us. It had been obvious Hedera wasn't happy, but I never would have believed she'd do something like this. She always looked so timid.

Suddenly, Mark was pulled off his feet and flying backward through the air.