Chapter One Hundred and Fourty Two

Marco’s POV

In my cell, I sat down on the cold, hard floor. My mind raced as I played the talk with Swiftclaw over and over. His words, his promises, and the weight of what he told me weighed heavily on me. The puzzle pieces were spread out in front of me, and I really wanted to put them together.

In the quiet of my thoughts, I heard a familiar voice. "Hey, Marco, you doing okay?"

I looked up and saw Dave looking at me through the bars of the next cell. I tried to smile, even though I felt all messed up inside. "Yeah, I'm okay, Dave."

Dave watched me for a moment, looking concerned like he knew something was wrong. After a short pause, he shook his head slowly. "Nah, something's not right. I've known you long enough to tell when you're holding stuff in. You want to talk about it?"

I sighed, realizing I couldn't hide what I was feeling from Dave, who'd become someone I could trust in this weird situation. "It's just... Swiftclaw, you know? He told me things, things that don't make