105

"I was hinting to ask you, Ava, how did you recognize that I wasn't your King?" Dominic inquired as he lowered food on the ground for Ava and Marleen. The food was plain and unappealing.

"King Dominus wouldn't have abducted me. He's decent."

"Decent, huh? Wait till you've glimpsed the actual him. We are the same, just with two bodies. I'm just another side he wishes to obliterate, but it's still there."

"I-"

Boom!

The audible commotion rendered them all alert. The abandoned house was distant from other buildings, and it was nocturnal.

Dominic glanced around him and his orifices snagged Marleen's apparent gaze. She wasn't frightened.

"You led them here," Dominic asserted. "How stupid of you." He let out and shook his head in disapproval.

"Let Ava go," Marleen announced firmly. Her eyes held determination and his eyes glowered.

"Sure," he dwelled, "But you'd have to stay in her place."