Glen looked at her with empty eyes, and Amber felt the aggression leave her like some invisible sluice gate had been opened. Her scales retracted.

“Amber,” Milo said. “Get away from him.”

Too late did she realise her arms were still extended through the bars. Glen’s cold hands encircled her wrists before she could pull them back in. His grip was strong. Too strong to break.

“Let go of me,” Amber said, keeping her voice calm.

Glen’s blank expression didn’t change, and he didn’t answer.

“What are you after, Glen?” Milo asked. He was standing by the door of his cell. “We’ve got nothing to offer you. Do you understand that? We don’t know what you want and we don’t know why you’ve been following Amber. You should go back to Cascade Falls. You should stay with your own kind.”

There was no indication that Milo’s words even registered.

“I’m sorry,” Amber whispered. “I should have been there to save you and I wasn’t. I’m truly sorry about that. Can we help you? Is there something we can do to help you?”

The thing with the cold hands wore Glen’s face like it was its own, but behind it there was a vast emptiness as unknowable as it was chilling. How much of the real Glen remained, Amber couldn’t guess. The eyes were dull, the features slack. There was not a flicker of interest, not even when he parted her arms. The backs of her elbows came to rest against the bars, and still Glen slowly pushed. Amber gritted her teeth, squirmed, tried to pull herself free, tried to turn her wrists, but Glen’s strength was immense. He was going to break her arms. He was going to snap her elbows. Black scales rose to the surface of her skin, but there was nothing they could do to prevent what was about to happen.

Her fingers turned to claws once again, and her claws scraped deep, bloodless furrows through his hands, but he didn’t once flinch. His expression didn’t change. He wasn’t even doing her the courtesy of looking angry.

The overhead lights flickered suddenly to life, casting their harsh glare over Glen’s pale skin, his sunken cheekbones, his dead eyes. The sight of him in the light was as shocking to Amber as the sight of him in the dark. Elsewhere, a heavy door was unlocked with a click. She heard voices, getting closer.

Glen released her and immediately Amber pulled her arms in, curling them into her chest to ease the pain. Glen took one step back and turned to smoke, and the smoke whirled and fled upwards to the air vent. Not one wisp was left when the new prisoners were escorted in.

Amber remembered herself just in time, and reverted a heartbeat before they came into view.