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Disclaimer*** I do not own anything – as u guys know, it all belongs to Richelle Mead

I just stared. Dumfounded.

"What now?" I asked stupidly

Lissa rolled her eyes. "Yes now. Everything has been set up."

Great. My best friend had organised my escape without even discussing it with me.

"Why now Liss?" it was a stupid question, I know, I should just be appreciative at a chance to see the outside of a cell – that was if this so called plan worked. But come on! I'd been in here three weeks and never In Lissa's multiple visits had she said anything about an escape plan. I'd seen he just last night for god sake!

"Um Rose... The council, they..." she hesitated. "Well it was so stupid! One of the Drozdov's asked to fast-forward your execution date. He said it's been too long and that we should do something about you."

"Fast-forward to when?" I whispered, hardly daring to breathe.

"Well it was supposed to be this morning but they've had a bit of a distraction..."

I waited for her to go on. When she didn't I rolled my eyes.

"Which was...?" this wasn't making any sense. What could distract the royal council from a teenage girl whom supposedly killed the queen?

"The council just lowered the age decree to 15." Dimitri said angrily

"What?" I shouted. I was certain I'd heard him wrong. This couldn't be right. Wasn't sixteen bad enough? Dimitri's nod confirmed my worst fears – well almost my worst fears.

"If they were distracted this morning then when am supposed to be ex.. execu.." I choked on those last words.

"Tonight" Lissa said and burst into tears.

"But Lissa, you just said you had a plan! That everything was set up!"

Me and Dimitri tried to comfort Lissa with words but I realized what I had to do. I drew the darkness from her and she slumped.

"I do- um.. I mean yeh.. We've got to go actually... Now and uhh... you didn't have to do that" she sighed, sounding embarrassed.

I didn't. I could feel the darkness inside me now but feelings softened as I considered what she'd said earlier. I was really going to get out of here. We could leave court, for somewhere less chaotic and stressful. Somewhere like Russia. 'Stop it Rose' I scolded myself.

Love fades... Mine has...

But now with Dimitri looking at me now, concern in his face, I finally realized those words were lies.

'But how would Dimitri fall for someone who is going crazy?' I thought.

I remembered a conversation id had long ago with Adrian.

"Crazy people rarely question whether they're crazy" he'd said.

Yeah but what if a crazy person doesn't know how to read the signs like I do – but that of course would mean that I'm not crazy – would it? I started to have an internal battle.

What- the- hell? With my future depending on the next few hours, how the hell could I be having a brainbattle... yup, definitely crazy. Wtf? 'Pull yourself together Rose!' I mentally chastised myself.

"Ok!" I said "Let's do this!"