Fear paralyzed me as events crystallized in my mind. Sasha had been hunting with Emile. With Emile. It didn’t make any sense. Sasha was my mother’s hunting partner. She was a Nightshade. Nightshade wolves answered only to their own alphas, my parents: Stephen and Naomi Tor. Nightshades and Banes despised each other and avoided contact as much as they could. The packs had only ever cooperated by direct order from the Keepers.

But now Emile Laroche, the Bane alpha, was leading Nightshades. I bristled, snarling at him even as I fought my own disbelief. Everything about the reality laid stark before my eyes was wrong, unnatural. Why would Sasha follow Emile? Why had she attacked me? Where were my mother and father? Where was my pack?

Spittle dripped from the Bane’s jaws as he stalked forward.

Come to beg forgiveness?

My limbs were shaking.

His muscles rippled when he shook his ruff.

I think you may find it’s too late.

I growled. If Emile wanted a fight, I’d give him one, even though the idea felt hopeless—Emile had made his reputation among Guardians as a killer. He was an immense, powerful beast and had many more years of fighting at his back than I did.

I’m not sorry for anything.

I braced myself against the ground, waiting for his lunge. Even if I couldn’t beat Emile, I could still make him hurt. A lot.

He crouched down, his growl almost like a throaty laugh. That’s exactly what your father said.

My father?

I was still feeling the shock of his words when he yelped, twisting his head to wrench the dagger from his side. He rolled along the snow, leaving a trail of crimson in his wake as a second dagger sailed past him.

“Calla! Get to Adne!” Lydia shouted. She was running at Emile with two more daggers in her hands.

I scrambled up, dashing toward the portal.

“Go! Go!” Connor screamed even as he tackled another elder Bane, a few feet from our escape route. Guardian and Searcher tumbled through the snow, leaving a cloud of sparkling white dust in their wake. I caught the flashes of Connor’s dagger in the sunlight with each slash at the wolf. The Bane’s fangs snapped, searching for flesh but missing as Connor twisted and writhed, keeping himself beyond the reach of its jaws. As I ran past him, he parried the Guardian’s gnashing teeth with the flat edge of one blade, deftly running it through with another. He kicked the wolf’s limp body off his sword and followed on my heels.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ethan covering Lydia’s attack with a suppressing fire of bolts from where he stood alongside the portal. I shifted forms, gasping for breath but needing to ask what came next.

“Come on!” An arm reached through the glimmering doorway and Adne jerked me into the warmth of Purgatory’s training room while Connor shoved me forward, both of us tumbling out of the snowy forest.

“Lydia, we’re clear!” Ethan shouted. “Get back here!” He had taken two steps toward her when four more wolves emerged from the forest, tearing toward the Bane alpha.

“Lydia!” Ethan shrieked, firing off more bolts.

She took her eyes off Emile and saw the approaching Guardians. Hurling two more daggers at the new assailants, she managed to take one down, slow another. But as she whirled and tore through the snow toward the portal, Emile sprang at her, sailing through the air.

The full force of his leap brought her down, flattening her against the snow. The three remaining wolves reached him as his jaws locked around her neck.

“No!” Connor shouted, pushing past me toward the other side of the door. But Ethan was there, blocking his path. Ethan shook his head, then looked at Adne.

Connor swore but didn’t argue.

“She’s gone, Adne,” Ethan said, not turning to see Emile tearing Lydia’s body apart. “Close the door.”

SEVEN

TESS LAY IN A CRUMPLED heap on the floor while Connor spoke softly to her.

“We’d better take her with us,” Ethan said to Isaac. “They can send another Reaper out for the time being. I’ll keep working point until Anika’s sorted this out.”

Isaac nodded.

As Adne wove a door to the Academy, I sat at the table, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Lydia was dead. I’d barely known her, but the way she’d died haunted me. Nausea rolled through my gut, making me shudder. I buried my face in my hands.

I couldn’t shake the thought that I’d brought this grief down on my new allies. Tess was sobbing, and each cry was like a razor slicing my skin. I’d run to Sasha. I’d assumed any Nightshade would be an ally. I couldn’t have been more wrong. My poor judgment had cost Lydia’s life.

Someone touched my shoulder. I lifted my head to see Adne gazing at me.

“Door’s open,” she said.

I followed her to the shining portal. Tess cried into Isaac’s shoulder when he hugged her, murmuring good-byes, before Connor put his arm around her waist and led her through Adne’s door.

When I passed Ethan on my way to the door, I reached out, grabbing the sleeve of his coat. I might have been wiser to pick someone else, but words wanted to climb out of my throat.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

He shook my hand off, but his gaze was more sad than angry. “Don’t be. This is who we are.”

I could see that truth at work. With the exception of Tess, the Searchers shouldered their grief and moved on in a way that was brutal and beautiful.

“Send an update when you can,” Ethan said.

“We will,” Adne said, and gestured for me to pass her.