Sam POV-

We stepped in and the door shut behind us, I knew it would but the thud that resonated through the tunnel somehow didn't sit right with me.

The secret hallway wasn't exactly secret, or at least it hadn't been when I lived in the palace. It was used by both of my parents and by almost all of the servants, not to mention me, probably a thousand times. I would hide in here during thunder storms and on really cold days I would bring some blankets, lanterns, and a few books in here to read.

I had never felt claustrophobic, that is, until now.

Something didn't feel right. And I soon figured out why.

Halfway down the corridor was a dead body.

"Oh Edgar!" my mother exclaimed, holding her hand over her mouth.

I vaguely remembered Edgar, except for the fact that he was our butler and he was fiercely loyal to my parents. I didn't think that he was murdered, otherwise Jacque would have known about this passageway and would undoubtedly be using it, so I guessed that he had come in here to hide and had somehow become trapped.

But how…

I studied his body. He had a panicked look on his face and his hands grasped at his throat.

That doesn't look like somebody who died of dehydration by being trapped in a tunnel.

"It's a trap!" I exclaimed. I knew it seemed too damn easy. It's never this easy! "Run!"

We all took off running towards the exit, not the one we had come from because it would have, no doubt, been blocked by guards.

About halfway there, I smelled rotten eggs.

Hydrogen sulfide gas. They must have pied it in from the sewer system—they knew we would come this way.

"Don't breathe it in!" I shouted, covering my nose with my shirt and I noticed everyone else did the same.

The gas burned my eyes, but we kept going.

Of course the exit was locked but I wasn't too worried about that.

"Hold onto me!" Danny shouted, everyone did and he phased us out.

I took a deep breath of fresh air, allowing it to fill my lungs and push out the toxic stuff.

There were no guards waiting on this side because I'm sure they assumed we would have died inside. And if we hadn't had Danny, we would have.

"This way," I coughed the poison out of my lungs. My eyes still burned, but it was subsiding a little.

When we passed my old bedroom I couldn't resist the urge to look inside.

The walls were still the same lavender color they had been eight years ago, but that was about the only thing that was the same. The rest of the room had been trashed. Furniture was stolen or destroyed, pillows and curtains had been ripped to shreds, my clothes had all been…well, let's just say you don't want to know.

I sighed and closed my bedroom door, continuing on down the hallway.

Danny studied me.

"Was that your room?" he wondered.

"Not anymore," I glared straight ahead, feeling murderous.

I slowed my pace and hung close to the wall when we were close to the North tower.

"Hear anything?" I whispered to Danny under my breath. He cocked his head to the side, listened for a few seconds, then shook his head.

I peeked my head around the corner. It seemed the only place in the castle that had not been changed at all was the North tower. Monitor screens were set up all around the room watching different parts of the castle and were the only things illuminating the room aside from the wall of windows on the opposite side that faced out the courtyard and allowed the moonlight to flood in. In the center of the table was a round table where different maps and papers were set out.

I hoped one of them would reveal Jacque's strategy but, unfortunately, none were so telling.

Suddenly I heard a groan from the corner.

It was my father.

He was bruised and bloodied and his hands were chained to the wall, but at least he was alive.

"Father!" I exclaimed quietly and rushed over to him, followed by my mother, Danny and Tucker.

"Samantha?" he asked, looking at me, "Is that you?"

I tried to force down the tears, "It's me."

"You are grown up," he smiled, "I am glad you are alright," he looked to my mother, "Both of you."

Danny quickly phased off his bindings.

"Now how did you do that?" he asked when they fell off of him.

"Later, Father," I replied, "Right now we need to get out of here."

"Going somewhere?" came the sickeningly deceptive voice of Jacque behind us, along with about a dozen guards.

I cursed mentally, or at least I thought it had been mentally until both of my parents gave me surprised looks.

"Tsk tsk. Language, Princess," he sneered, "Quite an awful hour of the morning to be about, but you are entertaining. Personally I'm still wondering how you escaped the trap. But did you really think that you could waltz into my headquarters, take your father and waltz back out," he laughed.

We had come this far, there was no way I was going to go down without a fight.

I scanned the room looking for something that we could use as a distraction.

Best case scenario would be to create an explosion or some kind of smoke bomb that would blind them long enough for Danny to fly us out of here, invisibly of course.

But there wasn't much of use in this room, much less something that could create an explosion.

"I've been saving this for a rainy day," Tucker said, pulling a pen out of his pocket. I didn't know what if it did, but if Tucker made it, it had to be good.

Jacque and his thugs laughed.

"A pen? Tell me, boy, what do you intend to do with that?" he laughed.

Tucker twisted off the top to the pen and rolled it towards Jacque and it immediately began spewing thick green smoke.

"Tuck, you're a lifesaver!" Danny exclaimed, "Everybody hold on."

"Seize them!" Jacque said between coughs.

But it was too late, Danny had already phased us out of the room. We floated down towards the river and Danny put us down beneath a bridge.

We all breathed a sigh of relief and I gave my father a real hug while he stared at Danny with a combination of surprise and confusion.

"What now?" Tucker asked.

"I know a place we can go," my father suggested.