A THIRTY-FOOT-TALL ELECTRIC FENCE WAS INTIMIDATING no matter which side you were on. After all, a fence couldn’t distinguish between someone trying to break in and someone trying to break out, and it wouldn’t discriminate between reg and wolf. It was an equal-opportunity killer; everyone who had gathered in the narrow space between it and the concrete wall that would eventually encircle the camp was at risk.
It was a risk I was all too willing to take.
I stared at the handful of lights that were visible in the distance. It was impossible to know whether they came from the dorms or the sanatorium, but the sight was a hook in my chest. Anything could have happened to Kyle and Serena after Jason and I had left the camp. Anything could be happening to them right now.
I crossed my arms and shivered.
The gesture didn’t slip past Hank, though he mistook the cause. “It’s not too late to go back to the park. One of the wolves can take you.”
I was struck, again, by how little my father knew me. I was afraid—of course I was afraid—but that wasn’t going to stop me. “I already told you: I’m staying. Besides, you can’t afford to be a man down.”
The recon team consisted of ten werewolves—including him and Eve. There wasn’t a single one to spare.
For a second, I was certain Hank was going to argue, but he let it drop and walked away.
A hand skimmed my temple and I jumped.
“Your hair was coming loose,” said Jason as he tucked a lock underneath my cap.
He was wearing an outfit identical to mine in every way but size. Everyone was dressed in the same all- black ensemble: black cap, black long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, and black boots. We looked like a gang of cat burglars. Or mimes.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, trying to ignore the blush that rose to my face. I had promised Jason we wouldn’t talk about the kiss, but I could still feel it between us. I knew I didn’t have anything to feel guilty about—we had both been positive we were going to die—but this close to the sanatorium, this close to Kyle, it seemed like a betrayal.
“Outer patrol!” hissed a female voice. “Hit the dirt!”
Along with the wolves, Jason and I dropped to the ground and crouched behind the wall. A moment later, I heard the low roar of an engine. A spotlight swept the fence to the left and right of our hiding place. I held my breath, but the guards didn’t bother getting out to check behind the concrete barrier.
The sound of the engine faded, and people slowly got to their feet.
“All right,” snapped Hank. “They’re running extra patrols. We’ve got thirty minutes at the most. Let’s get this done.”
Construction crews working on the wall had erected scaffolding on the outward-facing side. Hank leaped onto the first platform and began climbing. He scaled the rigging easily, his movements infused with a wolflike grace he hadn’t possessed a few years ago. Two of his men followed in his wake.
Eve wandered over to Jason and me. Lines creased her brow as she stared up at the top of the wall. “This is insane.”
“It was your idea,” I pointed out, trying to ignore the way my stomach churned.
“It didn’t seem so crazy when we were just talking about it.”
“A jump over a razor wire–topped electric fence from forty feet in the air without a safety net below,” said Jason, “what could possibly go wrong?”
In unison, Eve and I told him to shut up.
One of the wolves handed Hank a backpack—black like our outfits. He hurled it over the fence. It cleared the top wires easily and landed with a soft thud several feet inside the camp. I tried to tell myself it was a good sign as Hank hurled a second bag over, but there was a world of difference between a pack and a man.
“At least the wall is higher than the fence,” said Eve. “Ten feet, easily. That’s a huge advantage.”
I didn’t see how ten feet was a huge anything—especially not when there was almost twice that much space between the wall and the fence—but I didn’t say so. Pointing out the obvious wouldn’t be good for anybody’s nerves.
There were only two ways into Thornhill: through the gate or over the fence. We could have waited a few days and hijacked a delivery, but no one wanted to risk leaving the wolves in the detention block that long. By now, Sinclair would know that the hit she had put out on Jason and me had failed and there was no telling what she might do to Kyle, Serena, and Dex as payback.
Unfortunately—short of driving a tank through it—there was no way to disable the fence from outside the camp.
The zip line had been Eve’s idea. She was the one who had remembered the ancient water tower near the fence. If a wolf could survive the drop to the ground, they could run a line to the tower from the wall. Then the rest of us could propel across.
“I still don’t understand why your father is doing it,” said Jason as we watched Hank gauge the distance he’d have to clear to make it over. “Shouldn’t they have picked someone who’s not completely indispensable?”
“You don’t get to be the head of a werewolf pack without being insanely tough,” said Eve. “There are two, maybe three wolves who are stronger than Curtis, but not by much and they don’t heal nearly as fast. We need someone who can recover quickly.”
“And you’re sure he’ll be able to? Recover quickly?” I didn’t ask what would happen if he hit the fence. No werewolf, no matter how tough, would survive that.
Eve pressed her mouth into a thin, hard line and didn’t answer.
I peered up at the top of the wall, trying to ignore the sudden lump in my throat. An old, familiar feeling settled over me as I watched Hank back to the very edge of the concrete. It was the same knot of uncertainty and fear I used to get when he left on jobs.
Hank shook the tension out of his arms and said something to the other wolves on the wall. Then, without warning, he ran the three steps to the edge and launched himself out into space.
For a horrible second, I thought he wasn’t going to make it, but then he twisted in midair and cleared the razor wire with just inches to spare.
Relief sparked in my chest. Before it could take hold, Hank plummeted to the ground like a bag of bricks.
He hit the earth with a horrible thud. Clouds of dust billowed around him, and when the air cleared, he wasn’t moving. He lay half-sprawled on his back, arms and legs twisted at unnatural angles.
“Get up.
He didn’t move.
I reached for Jason’s hand and squeezed, squeezed so tightly that I was probably hurting him.
Kyle had once fallen from a second-floor window, but those had been residential stories. And as badly hurt as he’d been, he hadn’t looked nearly as broken.
The minutes dragged on. Eventually, Jason detangled his hand from mine. “Eve . . .”
“He’ll be all right,” she said. “Just give him time.”
But her voice shook with uncertainty, and around us, the other wolves had begun exchanging nervous whispers.
Years ago, I had convinced myself that I was fine with never seeing Hank again, but there was a difference between a world in which Hank chose not to be part of my life and a world in which he simply didn’t exist. The first I could handle, the second I wasn’t ready for.
I stared at Hank, willing him to get up. I stared so long and so hard that when his arm twitched, I was sure I had imagined it.
But Eve had seen it, too. “Curtis? Can you hear me?”
