When the handcuffs are back on my wrist and I'm locked up again, I actually find myself thankful for this fact; I'd much rather be here than under the cold scrutiny of Caroline Hersch, in that extraordinary but threatening room. I'd much rather be here, with Shi so close but so far, than anywhere near that woman.

    My stomach still sore from earlier, I rest my back against the wall and call: "Shi? Are you feeling better?"

    He just groans, his voice hoarse. It's odd, I'm thinking, how you notice a person's voice and the changes in it when you can't see them. Somehow, not being able to see helps me see more. "Not really," Shi manages with a dry cough. "Remember this morning, or at least I think it was this morning, that I told you I felt the crappiest I'd ever felt?"

    "Yeah."

    "I lied," he says gruffly. "I feel much crappier."

    "What did they do to you in there?" I ask, knowing I don't want to hear the answer but not being able to tone down my curiosity, my wrath towards them. Most of all, really, I'm wondering if Shi realized what I realized: just where the vampires of Maris came from.

    Shi takes a shuddering breath before answering. "Lots of silver. Lots of wolfsbane. Lots of punching. And, for some reason, they think it's plain hilarious to keep calling me Fido despite my constant corrections. They must be lunatics, to think we know anything about missing humans, or something or other—"

    "Shi. You do know what the whole missing humans thing means, don't you?"

    There's a prolonged pause, where I can only hear the practically inactive air conditioning. It's stuffy in here, sweat clinging to me. When I finally do get an answer, it's not from who I expected:    

    "I don't think he does, Gem," says a voice I'm all too relieved to hear, and I jolt to my feet to head for the door. Standing in front of the barred door is Gael, his brown hair tousled and his eyes lambent but somber. I'm so surprised and I'm so overjoyed that I don't know what to say at first, until I realize I've just been staring at him for too long.

    "Gael! Oh, thank God! You've come to break us out of here, right?"

    The somberness in Gael's eyes grows. "I can't, Gem. I'm sorry. They've told me that if I try anything, I'll pay for it, and I can't risk anyone I love getting hurt. That means you, too, Gemma...wait, did they hurt you?" he pauses, reaching forward, between the bars, to touch my face. I sigh, leaning into the touch; it's only been hours, and I already missed him. "If they laid a finger on you..."

    I laugh. "Oh, they did more than that. Hersch had one of her officer goons break my arm. Stabbed me right in the stomach, too."

     Gael mutters an expletive under his breath, and both of us slide to a seat across from each other. I ask him: "So, how the heck did you get here?"

    "I had to see you. I was worried sick after they dragged you away from me; I called and I negotiated with them, and they said I can see you like this once a day, at least until you tell Hersch what she needs to know," Gael answers promptly. He crosses his legs, eyes landing on Shi for a second. He then turns back to me. "That's why I came, guys," he says, now speaking to both of us. "Even if Kip is a disloyal bastard of a brother, you can get yourselves out of this."

    "How?" comes Shi's voice from the right of me. "We don't know anything."

    "Shi, you don't know anything," I correct. "I was going to make the connection for you before Gael showed up...but since he's here, he can do it."

    Gael smirks at me, eyes narrow. "Fine," he says. "So, you two raided Meredith's house and found a few solid clues, right? The spellbook with the notes, for example, and the map to the human world. Here's the thing: Why would she need a planned-out route to the human world in the first place, if she wasn't going there regularly?"

    Shi holds a long, "Oh."

    "Then there's this new missing humans thing. The only thing that makes sense is that the Commission is making vampires out of humans from Revlin and erasing their past. Probably to keep the population up."

    Shi holds a longer, "Oh." Then, he sighs. "So that's what happened to the stupid lady's daughter, and that's why she wants to know about all of this. Great. I guess, however, I don't get how that's supposed to get us out of this prison."

    "Yeah, yeah, yeah," I say, my eyebrows drawing in as I ponder a certain mission in the forest with Gael and Damien, overhearing something we weren't supposed to. "But one thing doesn't add up. Yes, Leopold killed Meredith to keep the public from figuring out what they were doing, but before that, Cassius came to her house. Remember that, Gael? So what was he getting from her?"

    He doesn't reply with his usual promptness, but I can tell by the stricken look on his face that it's not because of a loss of interest. In fact, he looks a little green, averting his eyes.

    "Gael?" I urge. "What is it you're not telling me?"

    It still takes him a while to start talking. "Uh, Gem...the night you came to Revlin, and told me about what you found in Meredith's house, I—well, I remembered something," he answers, itching at the back of his neck. He still refuses to look at me.

    "What did you remember?" Shi asks before I can.

    "I remembered...oh God," moaned Gael, "I remembered who it was that took me the night of my disappearance. I remembered why I was in that forest, Gemma, and it's because...I was supposed to become a vampire that night."

    I stop, along with my heart, collapsing against the wall. I'm positive that if I had had anything in my stomach at the moment, it would have come back up. He'd been running, that much I remember from the night I met him: He was so anxious to get away. Why have I never questioned from what? Who? "Gael...you can't be serious..."

    "Why didn't they make you one, then?" Shi demands, voice stern for his current condition. "How did you get away?"

    "Well, Shi, that's what connects me to Meredith's and Cassius's meeting that time. He was going to get something that would make him invulnerable to this," Gael says, and pushes a necklace underneath the door to my cell. Confused, I sit back up, bringing the piece of jewelry into my palm and studying it.

    My heart begins to thud.

    It's Gael's cross, the one I chucked out of reach the night we first met, simply because it was hurting Damien. I close my eyes, shaking my head. "You're the 'failed one' they kept talking about," I say in an exhale. "Of course you are. The cross kept you away from them, didn't it, so you just ran? That's what happened?"

    Gael nods. "Cassius couldn't have that happen again, is my guess, so he paid Meredith to make up a potion for him and his brothers to make sure it didn't. So, yeah, that cross there is the only reason my heart still beats. Funny, huh? God really does protect."

    I slide the necklace back to him. "Well, how did you find it again?"

    Gael shrugs. "I picked it up on my way back to Revlin. The whole picture didn't click until you told me what you found in Meredith's book. I knew that Leopold guy looked familiar, you know, before he held me, Sloane, and a bunch of kids hostage..."

    "Well, this is great and all, but knowing this isn't going to help us escape," Shi interjects. He sounds as desperate as I feel. "What are you proposing we do?"

    Gael takes his necklace from the ground and shoves it into his pocket, standing up. He looks down at me, eyelashes veiling his irises. "I'm proposing you tell her. Everything. Tell her about me, about Meredith, about what the Commission's really been doing. Tell her about Damien, even, that you now know he wasn't always the amnesiac vampire guy he is now. Tell her, guys, because you know she'll kill you both if you don't."

    "No she won't. Shi and I are her only source of information."

    "You have no idea what Hersch is capable of, and that's something I wouldn't risk, Gem," Gael says, bending to a squat to face me again. "Offer to help her find her daughter, because that's what she really wants, isn't it? Just tell her before things get worse, okay? Push comes to shove, we'll fight back. It's not like she can face an entire nation of Marisians, anyway."

    "Gael," I say. "It's too risky."

    His necklace jingles in his pocket as he turns to go. "No, Gem," he says, not looking back, "it's too risky not to."