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Chapter 6

I burst out the door and paused for a moment.

Rose was not in sight.

There were two possible routes; into the town, or into the woods. Knowing Rose would probably expect me to think that she'd go toward the lights and civilisation; I turned and took off towards the woods.

I ran swiftly on the balls of my feet, making the least noise possible. After running for about 10 minutes, I slowed down, listening for any slight sound of feet rustling fallen leaves or heavy breathing as she moved through the thick trees.

After another minute, I spotted her just standing in a clearing in the forest.

Running at her full speed, I tackled her before she even knew I had found her.

We landed on the ground with a thud and I moved on top of her, pinning her down for the second time tonight.

"You should have just hidden in town. It would have been the last place I looked." I said to her, my smugness at finding her with almost no problem evident in my voice. "Instead, I knew exactly where you'd go."

Rose's surprised expression was just disappearing when she spoke. I had actually taken her completely by surprise. She looked like she'd been asleep and someone had dunked a bucket of water over her head.

"Whatever." She said, struggling against me. "Don't act so smart. You made a lucky guess, that's all."

"I don't need luck, Roza," Her nickname rolling off my tongue before I could stop it. "I'll always find you. So, it's up to you how difficult you want this situation to be." I paused and made sure she was listening before I continued. "We can do this over and over, or you can do the reasonable thing and just stay put with Sydney and me."

"It's not reasonable!" She went back to what felt like a very old argument. "It's wasteful."

"How many times do I have to explain the logic behind what we're doing?" I asked, feeling exhausted after tonight's events.

"Until you give up," She answered and pushed with as much strength as she could muster against me.

I pulled her to her feet and she made a small noise of surprise. Before she could get her head around what had happened, I had her arms pinned behind her back and was walking her in the direction of the motel.

"I am not letting you and Sydney risk getting in trouble with me. I'll take care of myself, so just let me go!"

That's what this was about?

Before I could answer her, she stuck her foot about and hooked it around the base of a tree.

I groaned at her antics and loosened my grip ever so slightly so I could remove her foot. As soon as she felt the change, she tried to run. She only got two steps before I had a firm grip on her again.

"Rose, you can't win." I told her, wishing she'd just give up and come with me effortlessly.

This was Rose however…that was never going to happen.

"How's your face feeling?" She asked.

I ignored the jab and continued to pull her along.

"I'm seconds away from just tossing you over my shoulder," I warned her.

I'd like to see you try."

"How do you think Lissa would feel if you got killed?" I asked her, trying a different approach. As I spoke the words, it occurred to me that this was another small reason that I had agreed to watch over Rose and protect her.

I had already explained to Rose why we couldn't be together…but how would I feel about living in a world where Rose didn't exist?

I tightened my grip on her.

"Can you imagine what it would do to her if she lost you?" I wasn't sure if I was still talking about Lissa.

Rose didn't say anything for a few minutes, surprising us both.

"Have a little faith, comrade. I won't get killed." She said, breaking the silence. "I'll stay alive."

Rose had some of the strongest determination I had ever seen…but I hadn't exactly been expecting it here.

"There are other ways to help her than whatever insanity you're thinking of." I told her, mentally preparing myself to once again try and convince her that staying out of the way would give them a chance to gather some new evidence.

Before she could answer, she went limp in my arms.

I stumbled a little, tightening my grip on her to keep her upright.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, for all I knew this was another one of her plans to get away from me.

When she didn't answer however, I started to worry a bit.

Worry…Something I hadn't felt toward anything being since being turned back.

I turned attention back to Rose and noticed she had a far-off look in her eyes. A look I had seen a couple of times before. A look that told me she was seeing through Lissa's eyes.

I relaxed slightly realising that there wasn't anything dangerously wrong with Rose…but tensed back up, remembering that Rose only ever got sucked into Lissa's head when she was feeling a particularly strong emotion.

"You're right," she said quietly.

"Right about…?" I was trying hard to understand.

"Rushing back to Court won't help Lissa."

Shock was an understatement to what I was feeling.

Did Rose Hathaway just agree to something reasonable?

I'll go back to the motel with you, and I won't go running off to Court. But I'm not going to sit around and do nothing. I am going to do something for Lissa – and you and Sydney are going to help me."

Thanks for reading! If you get a chance, check out my other story Hook, Line and Sinker :) I'm still working on it :)