“You visited him?” Guilt bit into me much harder now. Why hadn’t I visited him yet?

“Mason and I have been staying with him in shifts,” she said. When she turned around, it was like a shadow passed over her face. “But he won’t talk to me even when I’m there. Mason said it’s the same for him.”

“He won’t?”

She shook her head.

“Maybe he just needs time,” I offered, though my stomach was twisting itself into a knot.

“Maybe.” She shivered. “Calla, I’m afraid we’re going to lose him.”

“I swear I won’t let the Searchers hurt him,” I said, a growl edging out with the words.

“No.” She rubbed her arms. “It’s not them I’m worried about.”

The painful twisting in my belly wasn’t a knot anymore. It was a knife.

“I barely recognize him,” she whispered. “He’s drawn so far inside himself. I don’t think he wants to live. He’s been scratching his arms so much that they bleed.”

“We’ll help him.” I worked past the lump in my throat. “We’ll help him get better.”

She nodded, brushing tears from her cheeks.

“Wanna go see him now?” she asked. “It’s time for me to switch with Mason anyway. He gets grumpy if he doesn’t eat like every two hours.”

“I think that’s true of every teenage guy.” I smiled, taking her hand. “Let’s go see Ansel.”

“So are you really not going to tell me anything about last night?” A wicked smiled flashed across her mouth.

“No.” But I smiled too. My world had been spinning out of control. Having Bryn around made everything better.

We’d only made it a few steps out of the room before Bryn stopped, turning to face me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said, taking my other hand in hers, squeezing my fingers tight. “It’s just . . . Sabine’s right.”

“About what?” I tried to puzzle out the expression on Bryn’s face; she didn’t look upset, just curious.

“About Shay,” she said. “He’s our new alpha, and he needs to be part of the pack.”

“Oh.” I shifted my weight, uneasy. While I wasn’t against the thought of Shay as my alpha mate, I was still getting used to the idea.

“You should go get him,” she said. “Come together—the alpha pair. It will show Ansel that things are changing. That he . . . that we have a future.”

I nodded. Would that help Ansel, knowing that the world that had hurt him so much was no longer the one that ruled us? He’d always believed that love came first. Maybe seeing Shay and me together, by choice, wouldbring him around.

“Okay.” I nodded, drawing my fingers from hers. “I’ll go find him.”

“Great!” She threw her arms around me. I leaned into her, resting my cheek against her springy ringlets, remembering how much Bryn’s scent reflected her personality—sweet and spicy like a mix of toffee and cinnamon. The kind of smell that made you feel at home anywhere.

She bounced down the hall and I went to Shay’s room. I knocked on the door. No answer.

I knocked again. Maybe he’d fallen asleep.

“He’s not in there.”

I turned around to see Adne approaching.

“What do you mean?”

“Anika has him locked up with the Guides in Haldis tactical,” she said, jerking her head in the direction of the meeting room. “They’re strategizing the Tordis pickup.”

“Why didn’t they tell me?” I frowned.

“That’s part of the discussion,” she said. “With your brother’s questionable status, some of the teams have expressed concern about bringing Guardians along for the retrieval.”

I didn’t know whether to be shocked, outraged, or both. “They’re planning the mission without us?”

“They’re weighing their options,” she said, smiling briefly. “But that’s a good thing for us.”

“What do you mean for us?” I asked, wary of the sudden flash of her eyes.

“I need your help on another mission,” she said, fingering the skeans at her waist. “Under the table.”

“What mission?” The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up.

Adne’s mouth cut into a hard line. “We’re going to get my brother.”

TWENTY-NINE

FOR A MOMENT I THOUGHT the floor had dropped out from under me and I was falling.

“Calla?” Adne grabbed my arms as I swayed on my feet, dizzy. “You okay?”

I shook my head, trying to clear away the buzzing heat that flooded my skull.

“Did you hear what I said?” she asked, guiding me along the hall.

I nodded. “Your brother?”

“Yes.”

“You mean Ren?” It was hard to say his name. “You can’t be serious. That would mean going back to Vail!”

She put her hand over my mouth. “Not here.”

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from asking more questions. Adne pulled me down the hall, past my room and a few others, finally unlocking a door and slipping inside.

While the layout of the room was identical to mine, it couldn’t have looked more different. My bedroom had the blasé décor of most guest rooms, inoffensive but utterly devoid of character.