dear.”
“Thank you.” She bowed her head.
“Can we move this along?” Connor suddenly bellowed, shoving Logan to his knees. “This one smells like his own piss.”
Efron glared at him. “If you’ve harmed my son…”
“No permanent damage has been done,” Anika said. “I assure you.”
“Give him to us,” Efron said, though he kept his hold on Sabine. “Now.”
“Not before we have the wolf,” Anika replied.
“Emile.” Efron jerked his chin toward Connor.
With a sweep of his arm, Emile lifted me onto my feet and had me stumbling toward the Searchers. At the same time, Connor kicked Logan, who began to scramble through the snow, Connor behind him. We stopped less than a foot apart.
Emile grinned at Connor. “Well, well. I haven’t seen you since a minute before I made meat out of your leader.”
“I won’t forget to show my thanks for that,” Connor said.
“I look forward to it,” Emile said.
Connor grabbed Logan by the shoulders, thrusting the Keeper out in front of him. “Let’s just do this.”
“Happily,” Emile snarled, tightening his grip on my waist. “Sorry we didn’t have more time to chat, Calla.”
I glared at him. “Go to hell.”
Despite my outrage, my heart was pounding as I glanced over my shoulder at Sabine. We couldn’t leave her here. We just couldn’t. Then I was being shoved forward and I saw Logan tumbling past me. I threw Connor a pleading look as Emile let me go.
Connor shouted before I could catch my breath, and in the next moment I was in the Searcher’s arms and we were running through the snow toward the other side of the meadow. Light blazed ahead of us as a portal opened and I heard voices calling my name.
The Banes were already lunging after us, but the Searchers had anticipated Keeper treachery. Crossbows twanged as Connor pulled me into the shimmering doorway with Anika at our side, calling orders even as we ran from the snow-filled meadow. I twisted in his arms, looking for Sabine. Just as the portal’s light poured over me, I met her gaze and thought I saw her smile.
EIGHTEEN
“WE HAVE TO GO BACK!” I shrieked at Connor, who struggled to hold me as Adne closed the door.
“What did they do to you? Have you lost your mind?” Connor shouted as I thrashed against him. “Why the hell would we go back there? And by the way, that’s some thanks for the rescue!”
“You left Sabine!” Tears were running down my cheeks and I couldn’t stop them. I was too angry and too afraid for what would happen to her.
Connor rolled his eyes. “We didn’t leave her.” He shoved me away with a grunt.
“It’s part of the plan, Calla,” Adne said gently.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Connor glared at me.
“The plan?” I forced myself to take a breath, shuddering out my wild emotions.
“Like I said.” Connor laughed. “No confidence in us at all.”
“We needed someone who could watch the Keepers and communicate with the Guardians,” Adne said.
“And Sabine was your best choice?” I couldn’t quite keep the anger out of my voice. “Do you know what she’s been through?”
“It was Sabine’s idea,” Anika answered, giving me a measured gaze.
I opened and closed my mouth again, unable to reply. Sabine came up with this plan?
“And it was a good plan,” Anika said. “We need her help. She’s the best link between Keepers and Guardians we have.”
“You didn’t worry that Efron wouldn’t take the bait?” I asked, feeling a bit unsteady in the current of this information.
“Logan was sure he would,” Connor said. “Something about pride being his father’s greatest weakness, Sabine as an Achilles’ heel, blah, blah, more metaphors.”
“Fine.” I bared my fangs at Connor. “But how does Ethan feel about all of this?”
“He only agreed if we let him go too.”
I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. “Ethan is in Vail?”
“Yep,” Connor said. “He insisted.”
“But they’ll kill him.”
“God, Connor.” Adne glared at him. “Don’t say it like that.”
Connor grinned. “But it’s so much more fun when she looks like she’s going to throw up.”
She ignored him, turning to me. “Calla, Ethan isn’t with the Keepers. He and Nev are with Tom Shaw.”
“At the Burnout?” I asked.
“He built what’s pretty much a bunker under that bar,” Connor said. “We’ve used it as a safe house from time to time. Nev and Ethan are staying there, coordinating intelligence coming in from the Guardians through Sabine and Logan. Logan’s keeping tabs on his father and the other Keepers. Sabine is lining up allies among the Banes and hopefully getting your father to do the same with the Nightshades. We’re using them to set up the final offensive on Rowan Estate.”
I swallowed the hard lump that formed in my throat. “When is the attack?”
“If we pick up this last piece,” Adne said quietly, “we attack at midnight.”
“That soon?” I asked.
“Well, considering we’ve jumped a few times zones, it’s actually already in the past.” Connor wiggled his eyebrows at me.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I’d assumed Connor had dragged me through a portal back to the Academy. But we weren’t in the Searchers’ building. It had been afternoon when we’d left the mountain meadow. Now we were outside and it was dark, but not night. The air was full of the promise of dawn. Hushed pink light crept upward into deep gray sky.
“We’re in New Zealand,” Adne said. “Where it’s already tomorrow morning.”
“But when we get back to Vail for the attack, it will still be midnight yesterday,” Connor said.
“You’re giving me a headache,” I said.
“It’s what he does best.” Adne grinned.
“Let’s be on our way.” Anika started walking. “The others are waiting.”
“Where are they?” I asked as my mind began to settle.
“They’re at the boat,” Adne said.
“Another boat?” I groaned.
“Different sort of trip this time,” Connor said. “No swim at the end.”
He led us into the brightening morning, pushing through a forest unlike any I’d seen. The ground beneath my feet was rough, broken rocks that seemed to be halfway to becoming sand. Trees with spiky limbs and thick leaves stretched over us, complemented by dense brush, tightly packed along the forest floor.
When the path opened up, the trees thinning to slope down onto a wide beach, I heard two familiar voices shout at once.
“Calla!”
Ren and Shay were both staring at me. They were sitting back to back. And they were tied up.
I stared at them. “What the-”
Mason, who’d been circling the captive boys as a wolf, shifted forms.
“Thank God!” He ran to me, catching me in a tight embrace. “It is so good to see you.”
