Damon pushed both hands through his hair. He lifted his head and looked straight into Branislava’s eyes. “I want this thing out of my head more than anything, but not at the risk of your life. It sounds like just looking at it might be dangerous.”

She shook her head. “If I don’t draw the mage’s attention by tripping his safeguard, I’ll be perfectly safe. I intend to be very careful. I’ve seen this done several times. It’s a matter of having patience. I learned that particular quality in the ice caves enduring my captivity.”

“What do you need me to do?” Damon asked.

“Have patience, too. Just sit there and let me see if I can do this. It may take a couple of tries.”

She looked at Zev, and his heart turned over. I’m really scared, Zev. If I trip that safeguard, he’ll know we’re on to him. He can strike at all of us through Damon.

I can take care of Damon. You just need to be safe.

Branislava threaded her fingers together at the nape of Zev’s neck and stared into his eyes. He looked back just as steadily, willing her to know that he wouldn’t let her down, that he would be with her every step of the way.

“You’re a very strong man.” She smiled at him. Wolfie.

He managed an answering grin. Branislava turned to face Damon, sinking gracefully onto the stone floor to one side of Zev’s feet, giving him plenty of room to move if needed. There was no point in wasting any more time, but she needed a moment to steady herself.

She looked out into the forest. The mist covered the trees like a gray blanket. She felt the tiny droplets on her skin. The wind teased her hair and kissed her face. This is freedom, Tatijana, she whispered to her sister.

She closed her eyes and let go of her body, trusting Tatijana and Fen to watch over her as she made this journey. Zev had to watch Damon. Traveling as spirit only, she moved slowly into Damon’s open mind. He was just as terrified as she was, but for different reasons. She couldn’t blame him—realizing someone else had infiltrated his brain and directed his movements had to be abhorrent to him. Once inside his skull, she stayed very quiet, unmoving, keeping her light as dim as possible to keep from tripping any safeguard. Spirit traveled as light, moving easily where a body couldn’t go, but the High Mage knew that and had always prepared for such an invasion when he placed his shadow in someone.

When she was absolutely certain her light was as dim as possible she began to move around Damon’s brain to find the shadow.

“She’s not breathing,” Makoce said anxiously.

Zev felt his own heart accelerate. Panic began to rise in spite of his determination to allow Branislava to ferret out the name of their enemy. Her body had slumped to one side, and Makoce was correct. Zev couldn’t detect a breathing pattern. He looked to Tatijana for reassurance.

Tatijana’s face was stark white. Her eyes glittered like two huge gems, and color banded through her hair.

“Tatijana?” he said softly, insistently.

Tatijana’s body jerked as if she suffered a blow. Her gaze jumped to Zev’s face. She hunched her body, pressing closer to Fen. “She’s alive,” she said softly. “She’s making certain she doesn’t trip a safeguard.”

Zev resisted the urge to merge with Branislava, knowing he couldn’t distract her, but the need was strong in him, his every protective instinct rebelling.

Branislava drifted closer to the brain, studying it carefully. The brain was large, barely fitting inside the skull, with several folds. At first the surface appeared wrinkled with hills and valleys everywhere. The individual cells, neurons, were connected very closely, almost too closely for her microscopic study to actually see where the shadow might be located. The neurons were necessary for information to travel through, chemicals signals entering the cell and then traveling through the filament to carry out orders. The mage had to have burned his shadow into the millions of cells living outside the brain.

Her spirit continued to move carefully. Her light was indistinct, making it difficult to see the ridges and valleys. Up close, the brain appeared quite gray when she inspected the densely packed cells, but the filaments, so closely bundled together appeared white. Mapping out his brain took time. There were millions of cells and the mage-shadow could be on any of them.

She had no idea of time passing, only that using such a faint light made her work extremely difficult. Fear was ever present. Xavier had been invincible, a man who tortured and killed hundreds of people from every species. No one, in all those long centuries had come to rescue them. No one had ever managed to defeat him, and it was difficult to think that anyone ever could after so much time had passed.

Evil endured. She knew it did, and Xavier was wholly evil. If anyone could ever find a way to come back from the dead . . . She couldn’t go there, couldn’t think like that. In any case, Fen was right, he couldn’t be in two places at one time. But that meant . . .

She found it. The shadow was wedged in a valley, the mark a vicious swipe of black that ran partially up a ridge. Everything in her stilled. She was disconnected from her body, but that didn’t stop the sensation of shock and horror from rushing through her. She recognized the mark. She’d seen it a hundred times. She knew who made it.

Branislava found herself back in her own body swaying with weakness. She pushed herself up and rushed off the verandah into the cool forest, into the miracle of clean, purified air. She kept running, her footfalls silent on the thick carpet of vegetation. Time passed, and she realized she wasn’t alone. Zev paced beside her, not speaking, not asking questions, just allowing her to run for her life. Run for her freedom. Just run.

She stopped abruptly and with a small sob, threw herself into his arms. There was safety there. Goodness. Zev might have to kill, but he regretted having to do so. She couldn’t detect evil in any part of him.

Just the sight of that lesion in Damon’s brain—that portal for evil with the distinctive signature—was terrifying to her. Pure evil had a way of insidiously trickling into lives and taking hold or wrenching the life away from a good individual and forcing obedience. Shadowing was such an abomination, removing free will.

She shuddered and Zev pulled her closer, held her tighter, pressing her face into his shoulder while tremors wracked her body. She inhaled the clean masculine scent of him and took solace in his integrity and compassion. Zev was an alpha male, at the very top of a predatory food chain and yet he didn’t abuse his power. Never once had he tried to take away her freedom. He worried about her, but he didn’t cage her.