“But that’s my point,” I said, frustrated by how much I still didn’t know about my supposed allies. “If she’s on the other side, she can just close the portal at the first sign of danger.”

“No matter how careful a Weaver is, we still make mistakes.” Adne’s eyes were like knives. “Something could get through.”

“I thought you said Keepers can’t do portals,” I said.

“Keepers can’t create portals,” Adne said. “They can still go through them. So can their beasties. Guardians, wraiths, whatever.”

“And if the Keepers ever got their hands on a Weaver,” Lydia said, “if they forced a captive to open doors, we’d never see them coming. That’s why portals stay closed and Weavers can’t be Strikers. They work outside the danger zone . . . as much outside it as we can manage, at least.”

Adne looked like she’d bitten into a lemon.

“That’s why if anything comes that isn’t us, you get back to Purgatory,” Connor said to her.

“I know the protocol,” she said. “Graduated, remember?”

“How could I forget?” Connor smiled, blowing her a kiss before tramping off through the snow.

“Okay, Calla,” Lydia said. “You’re obviously the best tracker. Lead the way.”

I grinned, shifting forms and bounding through the snow. The crisp winter air poured into my nostrils. I longed to howl. A rabbit dashed from beneath scrub brush and my mouth began to water.

“Calla!” Lydia shouted.

I skidded to a halt, snow rising around me like a veil of white mist. Oops.

The thrill of running on the mountain had made me forget I wasn’t with other wolves. Humans were slow. I wheeled and ran back to Lydia and Ethan, shifting forms when I reached them.

“Sorry.”

“You can scout ahead, but don’t lose us,” Lydia said.

Ethan adjusted the crossbow on his back. “If we think you’ve gone too far, I’ll shoot you in the tail.”

Lydia glared at him.

“Kidding, I was kidding,” he replied, but the grin he flashed me wasn’t friendly.

Back in wolf form, I managed to range ahead of the Searchers but kept them in my sight. The fresh snowfall wasn’t helping us. It smothered scents, muting new traces, erasing older scents.

The door Adne had opened was southwest of Haldis Cavern. I headed toward the perimeter that I would have expected Guardian patrols to be running at this point in the afternoon. Adjusting to my new allies wasn’t easy. Our inability to communicate was tedious at best, terribly frustrating at worst. Whenever I wanted to speak to them, I had to run back, change form, and then head out again. It only made me more desperate to get my packmates back. I triedto remember what it was like making this trek with Shay when he’d still been human. I’d been patient with his climb, and the Searchers were proving more than able to move quickly over the snowy terrain. Though it wasn’t an ideal partnership, I knew it could work. I kept that thought in focus as I plunged through snowdrifts.

Pawing through snowdrifts to reach frozen earth, lifting my muzzle to test the air, I did everything I could to locate evidence of my packmates’ trail. But I couldn’t find anything. No tracks, no scents. Nothing. Where are they?

My hope was dropping as low as the sun on the horizon when Lydia called to me again.

“Anything?” She was looking at the looming shadows that spread like spills of ink along the snow.

“No,” I said, kicking the snow. “This stuff is burying the scents. I haven’t picked up any trails other than game.”

“Wouldn’t your packmates have broken fresh trail up here during their patrol?” Ethan asked.

I frowned. He’d pinpointed the very thing that had nagged me as we’d progressed over the perimeter. Even if the route had changed, I should have seen some sign of Guardians crossing this part of the mountain. We were too close to Haldis Cavern for the patrols to miss it completely. Except . . . except . . . we’d stolen the object hidden in the cave and the Keepers knew it. Our school had reeked of their fear, their tension after Shay had found the strange cylinder, claiming it for his own. Haldis no longer needed protection. There would be no more patrols. And the only reason wolves would be ranging the sacred perimeter was to wait for . . .

“Oh no,” I said, smacking my gloved palm against my forehead. My blood felt icy.

“What?” Lydia asked.

I didn’t want to tell them. I felt like such an idiot. How could I have forgotten something so important? My cheeks burned because I knew why. I’d been so caught up in the possibility of finding Mason or Ansel, even a grumpy Fey, of reuniting with my pack that I’d fallen into the expectations I’d always had as an alpha. This was where we ran patrols. This site had been the focus of my whole life. It hadn’t even occurred to me to consider other options.

But why hadn’t Shay said anything when we were making this plan? He knew Haldis was missing. He had it in his possession.

“Calla.” Lydia spoke again. “What is it?”

As I grasped for an explanation and an apology, something caught my eye. It was a figure about one hundred yards away, coming at us fast.

“Heads up,” Ethan said, aiming his crossbow.

“Wait.” Lydia put her hand on his arm. The figure was on two legs and it was looking at us, waving its arms frantically. “It’s Connor.”