#Chapter50
Every night, I had spent the night in their room, unable to return to mine. Darius still believed wholeheartedly that I was trying to escape. I wasn’t willing to tell him different for the sake of Ryze, who now lived in the attic. Tobias was right, however. Even healed, Ryze never left. I noticed, though, with each passing day when Tobias would sneak me up to see him and feed him, that he grew larger, which was concerning because he would soon not fit through the hole in the roof.
I still couldn’t bring myself to feed him the mice. I tried to give him frozen ones, even thawed-out ones, but he liked them alive. So I was thankful that Tobias had no issues sacrificing the mice for me. Ryze even let him pat him. He nearly lost a finger, and Ryze only tolerated his touch for a few seconds before snapping at him. Tobias was thrilled that he had touched a live phoenix, like it was some sort of acceptance, and he was suddenly a phoenix whisperer.
