“I share those sentiments, and not just because this is the first new year I haven’t spent sittin’ at the bottom of a well.”

That was certainly part of it, though. Before now, the years just blended together. One year blurred into the next, and he had no real semblance of just how much time had actually passed until he pulled himself free of that well’s depths using that rope she carelessly left dangling. He really does owe his freedom to her laziness — and his life to her own brand of ruthlessness. Had she not stepped in when he was taking on Constance, he might very well have gone through with killing the damned witch and offing himself in the process.