A twig snapped up ahead.

I froze, another stake clenched in my fist. “Kieran?”

“Solange, wait,” I heard him say. His voice was low and urgent. I broke into a run, suddenly oblivious to the eerie silence of a forest filled with vampires. I found them past a grove of stunted birch trees. Solange wasn’t alone.

“Get away from her,” Kieran barked at the tall vampire at her side. He had dark hair and a quiet smirk, as if everything amused him. But there was something under the smirk, something deadly.

The elusive Constantine.

“Come back with me.” Kieran took another step toward her. “We’ll figure it out.”

Solange smiled. There was still blood on her dress. Her eyes were so blue they looked like sapphire beads. “I’m not lost,” she said sweetly. “So there’s nothing to figure out.” She leaned in close, as if she was about to kiss him. She stopped a breath away from his mouth. “Go away,” she said instead.

Kieran flinched. He didn’t say anything but the muscles in his neck strained as he fought the compulsion. He turned slowly on one foot to walk away, his back exposed. I jumped into the clearing, stake ready. Constantine shifted.

I threw the stake.

“Kieran, duck!” I hollered. He dropped to the ground just as it whistled over his head. Constantine snarled, pivoting. He knocked the stake aside, at the same time shielding Solange. Fury twisted her porcelain-doll features. If I’d had time, I would have shivered.

Constantine tugged her away, and they shot between the trees like pale stars. I’d thought for sure Constantine would have gone for my throat. Still, I didn’t want to hang around for him to change his mind.

“Gotta go.” I jerked Kieran to his feet. Solange’s pheromones made his eyes look a little glassy, but at least the compulsion was moving him in the direction I wanted him to go.

“I lost her,” he said, barely above a whisper as we ran toward the car. He was a silhouette in the piercing headlights. I couldn’t see his expression. He slammed his hand onto the hood of the SUV. His breath became short gasps of white clouds in the frigid air. “I lost her,” he repeated, bleakly.

“We can’t stay here,” I said. He just stood there, looking broken.” Kieran!” I tried to sound like a teacher back at the school. He blinked at me once. I flicked snow at him. “Snap out of it.”

He shook his head suddenly, as if he was dislodging the dark thoughts that clung to him like water. “You’re right.” He slid into the driver’s seat before I could wonder if he was in any condition to drive. He seemed okay, except for the set of his jaw and shoulders. There was blood on his sleeve. I didn’t ask whose it was. I dialed Connor’s cell phone as Kieran pulled back onto the road. He was the brother most likely to be connected.

“We know,” Connor said right away. “Hart’s on the phone with Dad.”

“You know? About Solange?”

“Yeah,” he said grimly. “Chloe just sent me video.”

“Shit, Connor. There’s video?”

“Security camera. I gotta go,” he said, before hanging up. “Mom’s going nuclear.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Your uncle’s on the phone with Solange’s dad,” I told Kieran. “There was video. How the hell did it get uploaded so fast?”

“There are Helios-Ra cameras all over town,” he answered tightly, hitting the accelerator. “I’ve got to talk to my uncle. Now.”

“I get that,” I said grabbing the door when the SUV slid a few feet. “Can you not get us killed first?”

The drive was far too slow and far too fast. Snow and trees and pavement blurred into one. I kept sneaking Kieran looks. His hands were knuckle-white around the steering wheel. I couldn’t process the fact that whatever happened to Solange was now happening publicly. Between the Huntsmen, the Helios-Ra, and the Blood Moon guard, she was going to get herself killed before we could save her.

Hunter was waiting for us in the parking lot. “There’s video,” she said.

“We know,” Kieran told her curtly, rolling down his window. “And we caught the live show.”

“That’s not all.” She held onto the SUV before he could drive off. “They brought the vic here. If she dies . . .”

“I know what happens,” Kieran said. “I have to go, Hunter.”

He drove off before she could say anything else. She watched him for a long silent moment then turned away, sighing.

“He chased her into the woods,” I told her. “But she was faster.”

“If that student they brought in dies, the Drakes will have broken the treaty.”

My breath froze, along with the rest of me. “But it’s not her fault.” I was more sure of that than ever before. That sweet-voiced porcelain doll with blood on her clothes wasn’t Solange. No one and nothing would convince me otherwise.

Hunter looked sympathetic. “You know that won’t matter to the League. Not now. Hart’s already made an announcement that the treaty holds until further notice, but he won’t be able to hold everyone back. Not on this.”

We headed toward the dorm and went straight inside to Hunter and Chloe’s room. Chloe turned in her desk chair. Her curly dark hair exploded out of a scrunchie that was slipping free and there were empty soda cans littered around her. Jenna sat on the edge of one of the beds.