Merle wakes up on a blanket on the floor and get stiffly to her feet. Her mother is stirring in the chair. Her father is still unconscious in the bed, ashen and sheened with sweat.
'I should go,' she says to her mother – thinking of the file and how she wants to get back to the castle and study it.
'Won't you stay for breakfast?'
'I'd better not. I'm only allowed to be away twenty-four hours. And you know Cole'll be trying to find any loophole he can not to give me the antidote at the end of this.'
'OK,' says her mother, smiling ruefully. 'Take some money from my handbag though. Buy yourself something nice to eat on the way.'
The castle door is answered by a welcoming party of Kristina and Oberon. Merle looks from one creepy smiling face to another. 'Where's Darius?'
Kristina shakes her head. 'Not sure. Like I told you before, he's a busy man.'
Merle feels her heart flip over. There's something disturbing about the way the two of them are looking at her. 'He can't expect me to ... Not you two again. Not after you tried to kill me–' she points accusingly at Kristina, then turns to Oberon '– and you tried to, God, I don't even know what you tried to do but it was damn creepy.'
Oberon runs his tongue over his top lip.
She swallows hard, taking a step backwards, further into the sunshine. 'You can't come out here, can you?'
'Out there? Into the daylight? No, Merle, we can't,' Kristina says nastily, 'but you have to come in here, I believe, or the terms of your deal with Darius are broken.'
'What are you going to do with me? When I come in, I mean.'
Kristina smiles. 'What Darius told us to do, of course. Take you back to the dungeon, lock you up, give you some food ...'
'The dungeon, not my room?'
'Do you know, I don't believe he was specific about that. He did say I was to lock you in though ...' Kristina's smiling face turns hard as stone.