“Adne’s right.” Connor leaned toward me. I could smell the whiskey on his breath. “Leave this alone.”

“I will not,” I said. “What happened to the Banes? How did Corrine Laroche die?”

“I said leave it.” Connor slammed his fist down on the table.

“Back off,” Shay snarled at him.

“Monroe?” Tess murmured, glancing anxiously at Connor.

“It’s fine,” Monroe said quietly. “They should know.”

Connor shook his head, emptying the rest of his flask into his coffee cup. “So much for no more sad stories.”

ELEVEN

MONROE LEANED BACK IN his chair. “I first came to Purgatory when I was twenty years old to serve as a Striker. I was a brash young man, all spitfire and ambition and no sense to speak of. I thought quite highly of myself.”

He chuckled, running a hand through his dark hair. “I didn’t appreciate the rules set by our Guide at the time. He was a meticulous man named Davis. I was impatient with his insistence that young Strikers always patrol in pairs. That we spend as much time gathering information about the Keepers as planning and executing attacks.”

He folded his arms over his chest, his face lost in memories. “One day, when I was supposed to be training, I headed off on my own. Trekked up near Haldis, convinced I could take out a Guardian or two solo. I was a fool. If circumstances had been anything other than what they were, I would have been dead.”

“What were the circumstances?” Shay asked.

“I encountered a lone Guardian. She was on me faster than I would have imagined possible; I didn’t even have time to draw a weapon. I had completely underestimated the skill of my adversaries. She knocked me down, and I thought she would kill me.” His voice tightened and he swallowed. “But then it wasn’t a wolf over me anymore. It was a young woman.” He glanced at me and smiled. “Barely older than you, Calla.”

I nodded, my heart pounding. “Why did she shift into human form?”

Monroe’s jaw clenched. “She asked me to kill her.”

“What?” Shay gasped.

I heard a muffled sob and glanced over to see that Tess had begun to cry again. Adne wrapped her arm around Tess’s shoulders.

“I was stunned,” Monroe continued. “She could barely speak through her tears. She clung to me, sobbing.”

Torrid emotion rippled through Monroe’s eyes, and I suddenly found it difficult to breathe.

He shifted restlessly in his chair. “She was mated to a cruel man for whom she had no love, tormented by constant fear of a master even more wicked than her husband, terrified for the well-being of packmates for whom she did care deeply but whose lives were as unpredictable and devoid of free willas her own.” He paused and drew a slow breath before he spoke again. “But all these things, she said she’d been able to bear. Until that moment.”

“What changed?” Shay whispered. He glanced at me and saw my contorted face. His fingers slipped between my own and I gripped his hand.

“Her master had ordered her to bear a child.” Monroe closed his eyes. “And she couldn’t face the idea that she would bring another life into this world who would be forced to contend with the same pains that plunged her into despair every day.”

“What did you do?” I asked in a whisper.

“I offered to help her.” Monroe’s eyes opened; they roiled with violent emotion. “I told her about the Harrowing. The true history that undermined all the lies she’d been told from her birth. A time when Searchers and Guardians united to fight back against the Keepers. I was desperate to convince her that there was another way. Something besides death to give her hope. I had never encountered pain like that. I wanted nothing more than to save her.”

Shay and I sat in silence, fascinated by his tale. Connor was staring into his cup, while Adne had begun to stroke Tess’s hair. Silas didn’t seem to be paying attention at all, his energy redirected to his notebook, occasionally pausing to peer at Shay.

Monroe smiled sadly. “We began to meet in secret. I brought her as much information as I could about how the alliances of the past had formed.”

I felt a caress on my hand. I glanced at Shay and he smiled gently at me. Monroe watched the exchange and his eyebrows rose. “Sounds familiar?”

Shay nodded.

Monroe’s smile became a grimace and he spoke again. “Davis had been furious with me for disobeying his directive, but he jumped at the chance to have Guardians on our side. It looked like our best chance to overturn control of Haldis. Corrine was able to gather support among several of her packmates. Our plan was to bring them out first, gather a significant force of several Searcher teams, and then make a combined assault against the Keepers in Vail.”

“But something went wrong?” Shay frowned.

Monroe nodded. He cleared his throat, but his voice remained thick. “Corrine became pregnant. She’d hoped to avoid it somehow”—he winced—“but such things can be difficult to control.”

He was quiet for a moment; he folded his hands on the table. “She was afraid to run while she was pregnant, and she didn’t want to take extra risks with the newborn child, so she asked for the plan to be put on hold. To wait until the child had grown, until her son was a year old and wouldn’t be so vulnerable when we made our escape. I agreed.” He paused; I saw his hands trembling.