FIFTEEN
I
DIDN̓̕̕̕’T THINK I COULD get any colder, but as Monroe’s
words settled around us, I could have sworn the temperature in the
room dropped.
It was Shay who
cleared his throat, speaking slowly. “What do you mean, we’re going
to save her pack?”
Monroe didn’t
answer.
Shay wouldn’t look
at me. “I hate to say it, but Ren obviously knew the risk he was
taking when he made those choices, which means he understands the
bigger picture. He was willing to make that
sacrifice.”
“Sacrifice?” I hated
how often that word was cropping up in my life. My mother had been
sacrificed. My brother seemed to think he’d be better off if he’d
been killed as well. I couldn’t bear the thought that Ren would
soon number among the casualties that I’d created by saving
Shay.
“No.” I glared at
them. “Ren is not a sacrifice. We are going to Vail to get
him.”
Ansel was nodding
even as he continued rocking back and forth where he sat. Shay
refused to meet my eyes.
“Going to Vail to do
what?” Shay asked. “Get killed? Look how well your last trip
went!”
“Shay,” Monroe said.
“We can’t leave the young wolves to the Keepers. It would be cruel.
We could still bring a few of them back—salvage this alliance. It
just won’t happen as quickly as we’d hoped.”
“I’m not trying to
be cruel,” Shay said. “You’re the ones who keep telling us this is
a war. Wars make casualties.”
Monroe kept his eyes
on Ansel. “They are children. It’s different.”
“Children?” Shay’s
laugh was harsh. “We’re talking about the other alpha. I know
Calla’s young, but I wouldn’t call her a child. Renier Laroche is
no different. He knew what he was doing. It’s over.”
“How can you say
that?” I glared at Shay. “The only reason he might die is because
he was trying to save us!”
“I’m being honest,”
he replied coolly. “If we go to Vail, it will be a bloodbath. You
can’t take that risk. I won’t let you.”
“Won’t let me! Who
the hell do you think you are?” Blood roared in my veins; my teeth
were so sharp they pierced the surface of my tongue as I
shouted.
I whirled to face
Monroe. “We cannot leave him!”
Monroe grasped my
hand. “We will not leave him, Calla. You have my
word.”
“How can you say
that?” Shay was shouting now. “What could possibly justify a
suicide mission like this one?!”
“He loves Calla,”
Monroe said quietly. “He already risked his life to save her. He
won’t betray her. He’ll die for her.”
Guilt ripped through
my belly like a knife. Shay swore under his breath.
“You can’t know
that,” he said, fists clenched at his sides. “He’s a Guardian. I’ve
seen what they can do. I’ve read their history. They’ve followed
the Keepers without question for centuries. Ren is one of
them.”
Monroe turned on
Shay, his jaw tightening. “He is not just a Guardian. He’s
Corrine’s son. She changed her mind. So will he.”
“Corrine is dead,”
Shay hissed. “Forget your love story, old man.”
A solid crack
sounded when Monroe’s fist met Shay’s jaw and sent him hurtling
across the floor. Adne gasped and crouched next to Shay where he’d
fallen. Ethan came to Monroe’s side, lips thin and eyes
mysterious.
“Come on, Dad,” Adne
murmured. She must have been upset because I’d never heard her call
Monroe anything other than his name. “Please be reasonable. Shay’s
just afraid for Calla. He loves her too.”
Make that really
upset. That was the first time she’d ever acknowledged Shay’s
feelings for me. It might have been reassuring, but I was too angry
with Shay for her words to affect me. Even if it was because he
loved me, he had no right to stop me from helping my
pack.
“We’re clearly past
reason,” Shay grumbled, and rubbed his jaw as Adne helped him to
his feet.
“I’m sorry.” Monroe
shook his head slowly, staring at his stillclenched
fist.
Connor glanced at my
stunned expression once and scrambled to stand between me and
Monroe, and Adne and Shay.
“Look,” he said.
“The last thing we need is to fall apart. We’re all on the same
side.”
“You could have
fooled me,” Shay muttered.
“Cool it, Chosen
One.” Connor smiled wryly. “If you’re serious about changing
things, about making the world better, we have to help the
Guardians. Their lives are hell; we have to get them out of there.
And Monroe’s right. Even getting a few out could be the first steps
toward an alliance. We have to start somewhere.”
Monroe
nodded.
“Ethan,” Shay said.
“Help me out here.”
“I know you’re the
Scion and all, kid,” Ethan murmured. “But I think Monroe and the
wolf girl are right. We should go in, and soon.”
“You’re the last
person I expected to sign on to People for the Ethical Treatment of
Guardians.” Connor laughed.
Ethan smiled at
Connor before glancing at Ansel, who was still hunched over,
pitiful, clenching and unclenching his fists. “I think I may have
misjudged them.”
“And how do you
propose we help them without losing everything?” Shay asked,
rubbing his bruised jaw.
My heart skipped a
beat when all the Searchers looked at me. But it was Adne who
spoke.
“Me.”
“What?” Monroe broke
out of his mournful reverie to glance at her, his eyes sharp and
alarmed.
“Stealth extraction
just before dawn. That still gives us a few hours to prepare. Take
a small team. I’ll open an inside door.”
“No.” Monroe’s face
paled.
“Every Weaver has to
successfully create an inside door in order to take up a post,” she
said. “I passed all the exams. You have my papers. I can do
it.”
“What’s this?” Shay
frowned.
Ethan smiled at
Adne. “Clever girl.”
“No,” Monroe said
again, taking a step toward his daughter. “Inside doors are for
emergencies only. They aren’t meant to be used by a strike
team.”
“What’s an inside
door?” I asked.
Adne faced me, eyes
bright. “That’s what we call a portal that is opened in a place
that the Weaver hasn’t seen. You have to create the door based on
your own mental image of the site you’ve targeted with only sketchy
information to go on.”
She turned back to
Monroe. “In this case it offers the perfect element of surprise,
which we need.”
“It’s against
protocol,” Monroe said. “I won’t allow it.”
“The protocol is
moronic,” Adne said. “I can get a team in and out. It’s the only
way.”
She glared at
Monroe. “It would have saved Stuart and Kyle.”
Monroe’s jaw
twitched, but he didn’t speak.
Connor put his hand
on Adne’s shoulder. “That’s a big risk, kiddo. You sure about
this?”
She nodded, but
Monroe shook his head. “I forbid any further discussion on this
matter. It’s out of the question. Protecting the Weaver is a team’s
first priority.”
Adne’s laugh was
haughty. “You were willing to throw everything away five seconds
ago. This isn’t about protocol, it’s about me. Give it up, Monroe.
I’m offering you the only feasible strategy and you know
it.”
Monroe stared at
her, his eyes tight.
Her voice dropped
low. “Please, I can do this. Let me help them.”
Ethan looked at
Monroe. “She’s right. It’s the only way this might work. It will
probably still be a total disaster.”
“It would have to be
a very small team,” Connor said, his eyes on Adne.
“How small?” Shay
frowned at him. “I mean not counting those of us here
now.”
“You’re not going,”
Connor said curtly. “You’re the Scion. If you die, we all
die.”
Monroe expelled a
long breath. “The Scion won’t go. Adne, you can open a door near
Eden, but not inside.”
“But that might not
be enough,” she countered.
“An inside door in
the club would be suicide. The risk that we’d lose and both Weaver
and portal would be compromised is far too great,” he said. “And we
just learned about the location of this detention site. You’d be
going in blind. I won’t risk it. Across the street from wherever
he’s being held or in an alley. We’ll strike from there, make the
extraction, and get out again.”
“Who’s going?” Shay
asked. He didn’t look happy, but the outrage had fled his
eyes.
“Only volunteers,”
Monroe said. “This isn’t coming from the Arrow. It’s personal. We
won’t be going back to the Academy; the strike will happen one hour
before dawn. Whoever is coming, you should get some rest or
whatever else you need to do before we reassemble
then.”
Ethan cleared his
throat. “I’ll go.”
I couldn’t stop my
snort of disbelief.
He offered me a cold
smile. “I may not like you, wolf, but I’m sorry I almost killed
your brother. And those bastards killed mine. I’d like a crack at
them . . . and to piss them off by snatching their
prisoners.”
Monroe frowned at
him, but Ethan shrugged. “Like you said, Monroe. This is
personal.”
“All right, Ethan.
You’ll go and I’ll go.”
“Two?” Shay gaped at
him. “You’re only taking two?”
“No.” Monroe smiled
at him and then looked at me. “We’ll be taking an alpha Guardian
with us. That should be all the muscle we need for a stealth
extraction.”
“Don’t take Calla,”
Shay said. “They’ll want to kill her. It’s too
dangerous.”
I jumped up,
flashing my fangs at him. “Do you even remember who I am? I don’t
need you to protect me!”
When he met my gaze,
my outrage dissolved. His eyes were full of fear . . . and love. “I
know.”
“We need her to help
us find her pack,” Monroe said. “She has to go.”
Shay’s shoulders
slumped, but he nodded.
“I’ll go too,”
Connor said suddenly. “If it’s gonna be the last party, I’m sure as
hell not missing it.”
“It’s settled,
then,” Monroe said. “Silas?”
“What?” The Scribe
had been poring over his notes.
“Can I trust you not
to report to Anika . . . at least not yet?” Monroe
asked.
He started writing
again but nodded. “I’ll make you a deal. Find out how they got
Grant and I won’t run back to the Arrow. The report I can make
right now is sparse at best.”
“Thank you,” Monroe
said. “Ethan, let’s talk about logistics. Isaac, could you fix this
boy something to eat? Connor—”
“Already on it,”
Connor said, heading toward the door. He glanced over his shoulder
at Adne, Shay, and me. “Come on, guys, I won’t be able to carry all
of them myself.”
I glanced at Ansel,
but he’d returned to staring at his hands and shuddering. Better to
leave him alone right now. I wanted to help him, but if I was
heading into a fight, I needed focus. Looking at Ansel tied knots
in my gut. All I could see was his brokenness and a vision of my
mother’s body bleeding on an altar. I swallowed bile and rose to
follow Connor. Adne was already leaving the kitchen.
“Carry all of what?”
Shay stood up.
“Weapons.” Connor
grinned and strode through the door.