The Fugitives Arrive at Duncan’s Hideout

The Fugitives Arrive at Duncan’s Hideout marks a passage from apparent ambush to guarded refuge—and then, before that refuge can become security, back to urgent uncertainty. Ava, Lock, and Ezra cross Duncan’s forest under threat from the people guarding it, prove their connection to Duncan through a private childhood memory, and reach his coastal cabin. There they discover that the hidden group is providing extra security, not building an army; but Cade is missing, and the welcome ends with a plan to go looking for him.

The Forest Interception

The approach begins in uneasy quiet. Ava hears only an owl and the ordinary noises of evening, but Lock, who is half nature spirit, has reason to heed what the woods might be telling him. After he senses something that does not repeat itself, the three move more quietly. Then people emerge from the trees, seemingly all around them: men and women in leather and denim, with an affinity for the forest that does not match their biker appearance.

The group tries to run, hoping to break through before their pursuers can close in. Instead, new faces appear from behind trees and bushes and out of the darkness wherever they turn. Lock throws a punch and misses; a rangy man tackles him to the ground. The encounter establishes that the fugitives are not simply lost in Duncan’s territory: its occupants can surround and stop them before they understand how many there are.

A large man demands to know their business, explaining that they are crossing Duncan’s lands. His conversational manner does little to soften the threat: the intruders have thirty seconds to prove they are expected, or he will kill them and bury them shallowly. Sid adds a threat to hang Ava and her companions from the trees as a warning. The danger is therefore both immediate and deliberate, even as the guards present themselves as enforcing the rules of the land.

Proving Ava’s Identity

Ava answers with controlled defiance. She says they have come to see Duncan about Venus, and warns the man not to call her girly again, letting her fireball flare to underline the threat. Rather than accept the claim at face value, the group photographs the three travelers and calls Duncan. Ava is handed the phone and questioned about details that only she would know, because a ward could make someone look like her without supplying their shared memories.

The decisive proof is an embarrassing story from when Ava was nine: Duncan took her to a carnival, she ate so much junk food that she vomited, and the cotton candy made the vomit fluorescent pink. Once she reaches that detail, Duncan is satisfied. The caller hangs up, and the guards’ manner changes; the large man offers his hand, and Ava accepts after extinguishing her fireball. Recognition transforms the encounter from a possible killing into an escorted entry, but it does not erase the force that made the verification necessary.

The large man orders most of the group to remain behind. They disappear into the trees, while Sid and a few others accompany the visitors as guards at least as far as the house. Lock is still bleeding from the struggle. His glance with Ava carries an unresolved question: if Duncan is not building an army, what are these secretive, violent people doing in his woods? The visit has gained them access, not yet an explanation.

A Coastal Refuge

Duncan lives in Duncan’s cabin on Maine’s rocky coast. Motorcycles stand under the carport beside his ancient four-by-four and an old black van. Ava counts only a handful of bikes and guesses that most of the entourage is camped elsewhere on the grounds, a first indication that the people in the forest are part of a larger presence around the property.

Duncan greets Ava at the door with a hug and offers her a hot meal; she accepts both. He looks like a woodland Santa, yet his presence carries a sense of command that makes her want to tiptoe around him more than around anyone she knows outside the Coterie. She does not give in to the feeling, and the contrast between his welcoming gesture and the authority she senses in him shapes the cabin as both home and guarded stronghold.

When Ava returns in clean clothes, Lock and Ezra are at a large table with Les and Duncan. Sid stands behind her friends with apparent nonchalance, but Ava reads his posture as ready to spring into action. The forest security has followed them indoors: the fugitives are guests, but their movements remain watched.

Sanctuary, with Cade Still Missing

The explanation for the guards comes from the group itself. Les says they are not an army: they needed somewhere to winter, and Duncan offered them a place in exchange for acting as extra security. He insists that they did not take Cade. The distinction answers the question raised in the woods, while also confirming that Duncan’s protection depends on an armed group whose presence has already made Ava’s arrival feel like an ambush.

Duncan tells Ava that he offered sanctuary because he knows her and does not believe she has come to kill him. When she wonders what would have happened if the Coterie had persuaded her, he identifies Cade as the leverage that could have changed her purpose—and says the Coterie does not have him, as far as he knows. Yet Cade should already have arrived. The group can explain its own presence, but it cannot explain his absence.

Les lends Ava a phone, and she calls Cade. The call goes to voicemail; hearing his recorded voice tightens the uncertainty rather than relieving it. Duncan proposes that someone drive Ava, Lock, and Ezra into town to investigate. Ava worries that this could put the driver in danger, but Duncan judges that the three can manage with backup and that they need more information. With Cade neither answering nor appearing at the cabin, the fugitives leave the haven they have only just reached to find out what is keeping him away.