As little as he wants as Graham to deny any chance of there not being a way around the poison, of Charming's fate not being then in flux and no longer so assured, the Huntsman had known too many unhappy endings to not be pragmatic on the matter. "If that comes to pass," he told him, unwilling still to allow what the spoke of to be a certainty not possibility. "I will watch over them to my dying breath. You have my word, David."

The irony of the oath he had made was not entirely lost on him. How little time he had until his dying breath was built to the specifications of the hotel, to his avoidance of doors that led back to their world. The laws the micro-world of the hotel had been built upon were a mystery to him, but all he knew then was that as long as he remained within its hold he might stay alive.

"I will look," he said, seeing no reason to draw the world in terms of dramaticism he did not then feel. "Tell me what I need look for."