They ran into the broken gardens without looking back. The hedges were tall and thick and had been dead for years. The sheer amount of brown, brittle branches kept the structure whole.

Strangely, there were healthy roses everywhere. They were red, pink, yellow and white. Each flower was blooming, very alive despite being attached to something that had been dead for years.

Davis gripped her hand and ran her through the gardens, moving around each corner and taking each bend without hesitating.

Miriam remembered what Caleb had said about guides not even being able to move through the garden. She held the thought while they ran, trying to figure out a way she could ask Davis about it.

They were deep in the maze before they stopped. Davis sat on the floor before a space that was the largest they had entered so far. He was panting, holding his side again. Neither Echo nor Caleb seemed even slightly tired.

"Damn-it. It's different. That turn wasn't there before. You can't get through without knowing the way. She'll have changed it from here," Davis announced after getting his breath back. "I shouldn't be surprised. With Ensio acting like an idiot, she'd need to change it."

Miriam looked at him and folded her arms. She wanted answers. He looked at her and she knew that he was aware of what she wanted.

He tried to act looking confused, but it was a terrible impersonation. Miriam walked over to him and caught his hand. He winced as she raised his hand to the earring, which glowed strongly when he touched it. The nymph had told her how she could make him understand, how she could save them from possibly tragic misunderstandings.

The heat the spread out from it was surprising.

Tell me, she commanded internally.

He looked at her and she knew he was a little surprised, confused and unwilling all at once. She knew it as though she were feeling those emotions in his place.

Then he smiled and disarmed her. She felt naked. Every emotion and thought she had on display. She thought about moving his hand and he did so, touching her cheek with a terrible tenderness.

In that moment, she decided she did not like doing that. Even if she could tell him things directly instead of playing the awful game of charades they had going on for weeks now. That was too intimate for her to feel comfortable with. She moved away.

"I was born here," he said simply. "Lots of kids were. This place hectic then. It was like a little town inside one buildin."

He sighed. "Getting lost here is certain death. It was then too. Even as a kid, when I had the whole place memorised, I was never allowed go into the gardens alone."

He looked around at the strange dead plant with the living flowers and smiled.

"I'll get you through this, Mir. I promise."

Miriam returned his smile and sat down. They would go on. She just needed to rest a little first. They both did.

He reached his hand towards the petals of a lavender rose that had intertwined with another rose of lavender colour.

It moved slightly, lifting to meet his touch. Echo squealed in delight and ran to make some of the other roses move. She quickly found a favourite colour and ran to touch each yellow rose that she could see.

"It's nice to see she doesn't completely hate it."

He gave Miriam a smirk and she realised that he wasn't talking about Echo. She tilted her head, questioning.

"Who, right? You want to know, don't you? That's not all either. You want to know a whole lot more. Don't you?" he teased. Of course, she did.

He knew she did. She could find out what that idiot lion had been on about. She could find out about Jace and Davis's past. He was being cryptic on purpose, trying to bait her.

"I'll tell you this way."

He reached for the earring again. She caught his hand before it touched. He didn't get to win that easily.

He was still shamelessly smiling at her. She turned her head so he could not see the smile she was trying to hide and shook her head. At least he was being honest. Even if he was a complete idiot.

"Don't worry," he said, laying down on his back and staring at the sky. "It doesn't matter anymore. All that matters is Jace. And you."

Caleb produced a fake cough that turned into a real hairball. Miriam had to catch her mouth to stop from laughing at the distressed cat. Davis laughed outright and then pet the cat.

His coughing drew Echo on him. She swooped him up to show him the flowers, scratching his nose and making his yowl when she rubbed his face in the brush. Then Echo dropped him and went back to ignoring them all in favour of the moving roses. The flowers were practically dancing at her finger-tips.

It was a nice moment. Miriam almost wished that it could last. Just like in the fake forest, Miriam felt that both impressed and uncomfortable with the flowers.

The backdrop of the dead bushes only served to make them even more lovely. But everywhere she went, things were dead. One of the first things she had seen in this place were graves. Then there were ruins, dying towns and the cold, solid trees made of stone.

Miriam decided that they had to move.

Davis had gotten this far without getting lost. It stood to reason that the other man, the one who had drained the blood from Davis's face under his mask, could get this far as well. Ensio, she remembered. His name was Ensio, Davis said.

Davis saw her stand but stayed where he was, staring at her.

"We can't go any further. I don't know the way."

Miriam pointedly looked back at the way they had entered. It was a narrow gap but at a turn so they would not be able to see anyone coming.

"They'll only be able to come in one at a time. I doubt they'll bother chasing us in. So we've three choices. We either press on and die in some horrible manner, stay here and starve or wander back out into Kain's open arms."

Miriam stared at him. She hated when people gave her choices.

Miriam looked away from Davis and spotted Caleb. She wasn't the only one who was listening. For once, Caleb was silent. Davis signed, looking sad and resigned.

"I need Jace safe, but I don't have to be the one who saves him. I'm going to trust you to keep your promise, Mir. We'll rest here. When you're ready to go, let me know. I'll go out first and you can escape with Echo and Caleb. You can go back to the agency."

He smiled, but like what he really wanted to do was cry.

"Just get Jace and take him with you," he said. "He'll listen to you if you have my earring. Jacob will take you in. You'll be safe there. You'll both be safe."

The cat stayed quiet. Miriam expected him to speak up in favour of the plan. It was no secret he wanted to go back to Ebb and didn't give a damn what happened to them. But he had stayed. He had stayed and now he was watched Davis in silence.

Miriam wondered if she was imagining the slight raising of his fur from the back of his neck.

"Our luck had to run out sometime, Mir."

Something inside Miriam released with a sharpness and quickness she would not have believed.

Now he was telling her to give up?

Lucky? He thought they were lucky?

Where had luck come into her getting stolen from her home? Where was this imagined luck every time they had been stalled or caught? Where was it when she couldn't breathe out of sheer terror?

She hadn't let her kidnapper keep her; she had escaped.

She hadn't let a monster eat her when she was too tired to move; she had fought back. She hadn't died in the dessert; she had found the ruins.

She had found him. She hadn't let him hurt, control or manipulate her. She hadn't let anyone do that.

One of her decisions was to save him. Now he wanted to play hero? Pretend that he wasn't a coward and she was some kind of damsel. And what about Jace? Telling her to run and get him and hide and wait to die.

Not after they had come all this way. Not when they were this close. That wasn't how this was going to play out. She wouldn't let it.

She glared at him and stood over him. She grabbed the tooth knife and pressed it gently to his cheek and moved it down until it touched his throat.

Miriam was not a girl to force into a corner. If he touched the earring now, the ferocity in her would have sent him reeling.

If he wanted to do any of those things, those limited choices he listed to her, he'd have to fight her for them.

Did he decide to give up? Well, she decided that she was about to make it as hard for him as possible. She had no place for cowards. If he wanted to do this, to go out there and act like some god-damned hero, she was going to ensure he was brave enough for the part.

He looked at her with wide, alarmed eyes. She silently dared him to touch the earring, to touch her. Frozen, he watched her as she took in every breath.

"Why are you crying?" he asked.

She pushed him away in disgust and refused to wipe her eyes.

She had something sharp and pointy at his neck and he was worried about her. The whole thing was so ridiculous that suddenly, she found it funny.

She smiled silently, fighting the urge to laugh. Or to cry. Miriam honestly couldn't tell which she would do if she allowed herself to do anything but hold that small, tight smile. Caleb, who had watched the whole thing was staring at her now. Echo was making a whimpering noise.

"What now, Mir?" Davis asked, after a while.

She took hold of Davis's arm and pulled him to his feet. She pointed at the way forward. Then she looked from Davis to Caleb, daring them to disagree or argue with her.

Miriam looked to Echo. The girl was still whimpering. Miriam, thinking that it was because she had gotten mad, was ready to comfort her other.

But Echo wasn't looking at Miriam. She was staring at the roses she had been jumping to and dancing with.

All of the yellow roses had turned black. The pink ones were black as well. The orange and lavender roses were in the process of changing, their colour draining from them and black bleeding throughout their delicate petals, starting from the centre. Then the red.

Miriam watched in horror as each and every rose darkened. They weren't dying. They didn't wither, just darkened.

"Echo. Come here," Davis said, beckoning with his hand. "Come away from there."

Davis was looking at the flowers in horror. He hadn't noticed them changing either. All four of them went to the centre of the opening, as far from the hedge walls and flowers as they could get.

Echo went behind Davis, forgetting or not caring about him threatening her earlier. She tried to make herself as small as she could behind his back. Caleb was around her shoulders, his head buried into the nape of her neck.

Miriam opened her mouth but said nothing. She turned to Davis.

He put his finger to his lips and hushed. Even Echo sensed enough to be quiet.

"She knows we're here," Davis whispered. It was the only explanation he offered and, for once, it was enough.

Miriam knew who this 'she' was. The Queen, the 'mother of monsters' was aware of them in her home. Unreasonable dread surged through Miriam. She didn't notice the pain in her legs anymore. Every instinct was screaming at her to run. She was close to the opening they came through.

There was a noise, the dead rustle of the many small branches of the hedges snapping and moving. Something was coming.

Davis caught her hand and squeezed just a fraction too hard. His eyes were wide and glued to the intertwining roses he had touched earlier.

He swallowed and his Adam's apple jumped on his throat. He was scared too. He was just as scared as she was, maybe more, but he wasn't running.

She made her decision and bite the inside of her cheek until she tasted something coppery. Resolve needed steal. She might not have steal, but copper was enough to keep her feet planted next to Davis and between Echo and whatever was coming towards them. She made it enough.

Another noise, closer this time. Was it her imagination or did it sound smaller? The archway of the opening was covered in black roses. At once, all of them changed to a white and then a pink, tiny, glowing fox trotted into view.

"Lumia?" Davis asked, looking at the impossibly lovely creature as it turned a pair of big puddle eyes on Miriam.