Chapter 23.

My bags were taken from the car and carried inside the house by a large man in a seamless red vest and black undershirt. He didn't speak, not a single word of hello or his name; just a grunt when he closed the trunk.  Come to think of it, nobody had said a word to me since I stepped out of the car. They were all just watching Darian, as though they waited for an order before they could breathe. I looked at every corner, windowsill, around the buildings that stood on the property and at the road leading down from the stable where warriors dressed in uniform were getting of their saddles. There were stairs leading down the side of the castle, they disappeared down behind a trimmed hedge with lilac flowers growing around the rustic railing. I needed to know that there was an escape route before I entered his house. Once I was inside there was no telling what would happen to me but I needed to know the places where I could hide if I needed to run. Or for when I planned to leave.  Because I