Alex was keeping up with him as best she could, and she tried to ignore the way that she could swear that she felt the Tall Men touching her skin. Shivering from deep in her core, Alex was trying to remember everything that Lizzie had taught her about strength and reflexes, and she lamented the fact that they'd not really gotten into fighting. Punching Thomas Warren (or the representation created by his mind anyway) had been a bit of a suckerpunch, born more of her father's teachings than Lizzies. She didn't think she'd get the chance again.

But she was still listening to Warren, even as they tried to run, and for her it almost felt like the two of them were running in place. Warren's voice was right there and the words laid heavily on her. Gritting her teeth, she managed to get out "I'm not anyone's pawn!" It wasn't a shout, but she was sure that he would have heard her. Both of them would have heard her. There was no way they couldn't.

However when she looked up, Alex screamed. The helvation that should be behind them was now in front of them, and she jerked on Richard's hand to get him to stop before he ran into it. Touching it was bad. Bad and terrible and the thing might come out and get him. "Get him," it hissed, "or get you, Alex? You don't even know do you? And it doesn't really matter to you. You think you'll stop it. You think Simon's right, but what if he's wrong. What if you are just something to be fridged in your charming words? Maybe this isn't your story Alex, and that was your place all along. Another tragic romance for a tragic man who needs to be broken."