It had only been about an hour before Fenrin started moaning, the sounds escalating quickly into screams of pain. Jayln bolted up and rushed over. Fenrin was coated with sweat and his eyes moved madly beneath his eyelids. Gently she shook him.

"Fenrin, wake up. It's not real."

His grey eyes opened and looked at her, clouded with exhaustion. She tentatively reached over and stroked his hair. "You're safe. No one is going to hurt you."

His eyes lost focus and Jayln hummed until he drifted back to sleep.

The events repeated throughout the night, Fenrin unable to avoid his nightmare for more than a few hours at a time. After each episode, Jayln would come to his side, reassuring him and convincing him to drink more water or get some more sleep.

Matius came down the next morning with breakfast for the three of them. As Jayln got some warm porridge into Fenrin, Matius held a finger to his lips, pouring some liquid from a blue bottle into Fenrin's water.

Jayln looked to Fenrin with concern. Hopefully a sleeping draught would help and not trap him with his nightmares. However, she was encouraged by the fact that his ached face seemed to have a bit more color. As Fenrin drank the water, his brows furrowed. He flinched, his arm reaching desperately out before his eyes rolled up and he lay still, breathing quietly.

Sitting on her cot, Jayln rested her head on Matius's lap as he talked absently about his theories on what the potion would do to Fenrin's mindscape. Jayln's eyes drifted close and she vaguely noted Matius murmuring a lullaby as she fell asleep.

She woke up with a start, her head knocking the book out of Matius's hand.

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"Oops! Are you alright?" he asked with concern as she winced from the hardcover. The clatter of the book on stone cleared her head and she turned to the cell.

Fenrin was still resting peacefully.

"Any change? How long was I asleep?"

"He's fine and has been for the last four hours."

She glanced at Matius, reddening a bit to notice she left some drool on his robe. "Four hours," she repeated.

Matius grinned and reached down to retrieve his book. "Not long to wait when you have Avicus's Travels to keep you company." He held up the book and then smoothed one of the pages that had bent in the fall.

Jayln slid until her back was on the wall. "I'm glad he's sleeping, he didn't get much rest last night."

"Neither did you it seems." Matius reached and his fingers slipped between hers and he gave her a smile. "But I think we are past the worst of it. With Niv gone, the cards won't be stacked against him."

Jayln returned the smile but it faded. "The cards have always been stacked against him. What if after everything, it's not enough?"

"We've done everything we can. You have to promise you won't blame yourself if he doesn't pull through." Matius squeezed her hand, "Hey, I know it's tough to hear, but the only demons he's fighting now are those he made himself. If he can't beat them, it's a fate of his own making."

The words were unusually harsh for Matius, but he had a point and Jayln sighed. "I know. I just want to give him a fighting chance. I don't want him to die without anyone ever being truly on his side."

Fighting through his memories, it'd become clear how Fenrin had ended up how he was. It didn't excuse his actions, but the first walls he'd put up between him and his humanity had been done to survive. Not even his mother had stood up for him and after everything Niv had put him through, Fenrin deserved one last shot at happiness—if he would let himself take it.

Jayln reached out and took the book from Matius, settling against him and flipping to the first page. In the end, it was up to Fenrin.