“Brrr,” Denaux shivered with an oversized puffy coat draped over him, his purple lounge-wear still peaking out underneath. “It’s chill-lay to the bone up here. Whatchu done to make Mother Nature so coarse now?”

  “It’s 68 degrees, Denaux” I scoffed, trying to stifle laughter while still sporting my now tattered night time attire,” looking past the spires of the castle and down over the edge of the rooftop and watching sparing activity in the hours before dawn, the city still aglow in the night, but not for much longer.

  “I know,” Denaux clutched his coat tightly, “She must be mighty mad. Like a blizzard rolled on through.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” I smirked, shaking my head at his antics.

  “Please, no!” A guttural cry came from behind us. “I’ll talk, I swear!” Tyler’s voice echoed off the side of the building and gently caressed the rooftop from a little away.

  I turned to watch Treven. Holding tenderly onto a thick rope that was wrapped around a solid steel port in the roof itself. The rope trailed over the side of the building. “We don’t want you to talk, we want you to play!” Treven laughed maniacally.

  “Turn down the theatrics,” Callum said. “We just need to convince him there’s no better option,” he whispered.

  I walked to the ledge and sat upon it, watching the struggling Tyler swaying with the rope bound both around his feet and hands, trying not to make any further movement while he pleaded for his life, dangling quite a distance from the ground. “I’m fine with it,” I smiled and gave a playful wink to Callum, pretending to enjoy the spectacle in Tyler’s eyes. Though I slightly did, I must admit.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  I looked around the rooftop, my eyes following a quiet Isaac standing in the darkened corners of the rooftop across from me, shying away from the activity...and me. It made me angry and want him all the more.

  “This is simple,” Callum spoke up, “we are going to end your relationship with Perrault. In doing so, we will end him. You will aid us in that endeavor, are we clear?”

  “He’ll—he’ll kill me!” Tyler blubbered about, tears trickling down his face and plummeting to a minuscule demise on the cold, barren, cement far below.

  Callum nodded to Treven, who grinned and immediately started sawing the rope with a dull blade as to not potentially cause irreparable damage to their unwilling participant.

  “Wait! Wait!” Tyler flailed again, before recognizing that his flailing could cause himself even greater harm and halting immediately. “I’m sorry, just please, let me down!”

  “Your words to gods ears,” Treven said, picking up speed in his loudly false cutting, his hand cycling like well oiled machinery.

  “NO! NO!” Tyler yelped. “I’ll help, I’ll help!”

  I smirked and looked at Callum, who snapped fingers at Treven to stop. “Be witness, different parties can come to arrangements. You’ll not regret your decision. Repentance is nigh.”

  “Yes, yes, just please, pull me up!”

  Treven slowly pulled him up, calling upon his hidden strength that lay beneath the surface, lugging Tyler's scared stiff body up and over the weathered stone ledge of the balcony.

  I rose and walked to Callum, lowering my voice. “Is everyone on board with the plan?” I eyed Isaac in the back, who watched me from the shadows, still brooding about and avoiding me after our post kiss blow-up.

  Callum nodded. “Everyone,” his eyes slanting and turning to clock his shadowed brother off in the corner.

  Denaux smiled from aside, his brow bouncing playfully behind his glasses.

  I grinned. “Good. We’re gonna put a stop to Perrault, once and for all.”