Wolfsbane (33 page)

Connor knocked her arm away at the last second, the slash of the skean’s sharp point coming within inches of Logan’s cheek.

“Let me go!” Adne shrieked, sobbing.

Logan was shaking, his eyes bulging as he watched Adne brandish her skeans. “I swear I have information you need. Plus if I wanted to harm you, wouldn’t I have already summoned a wraith?”

No one answered him. I hated that anything Logan said made sense.

Connor lifted his foot and Logan propped himself up on his elbows, which inspired Connor to level the dagger with Logan’s neck.

“If I give you something,” Logan asked, “wil you bring me to your Arrow?”

“Depends on how much we think it’s worth,”

Connor muttered, his eyes fixed on Adne’s struggle.

“Your people have taken a lot from us today. And that’s just today.”

“I can tel you there’s a traitor in your midst. I’l hand them to you as a sign of good faith.” Logan’s shaking gave way to a smirk that sent a chil skittering over my flesh.

“What traitor?” Connor asked, rol ing the edge of the blade along Logan’s throat.

“How do you think we found you?” Logan said.

“We’ve been hunting you for years. Did you think we just got lucky today?”

“Someone led you to the Denver outpost,” Connor said.

“Someone you trusted,” Logan said. “Someone you brought back from the dead.”

“No,” Shay growled. “You’re lying.” He stepped in front of me, shielding me from something I did not yet know to be afraid of. What was he talking about?

Logan smiled at him. “You may have power, Scion. But not even you can protect her from this.”

“You heartless bastard,” Shay said. “Stop now or I’l —”

“Or you’l what?” Logan said. “Would you kil me to hide the truth? Are my words a crime when they’l protect your al ies?”

“What are you talking about, Keeper?” Connor leaned down, pushing the dagger into his flesh. “I’m losing patience with you.”

“Her brother,” Logan choked against the blade’s pressure. “Cal a’s brother. He made a deal with my father and Lumine.”

“No,” I whispered.

Mason snarled, pawing at the earth.

Logan’s eyes were on me. “It’s true. He betrayed you.”

I searched frantical y for Ansel, finding him cowering behind Bryn, who had shifted into wolf form and was already growling as if to protect him from impending attack. Mason ran to her, taking up a sentry-like position at her side.

Oh God.

“He’s more of a threat to you than I am,” Logan hissed.

Connor lifted the dagger’s blade, looking up at me. “Cal a?”

My throat had closed. I turned away from Connor, darting toward Ansel. Bryn bared her teeth at me, but I grabbed Ansel’s shoulders, shaking him.

“Ansel, please. You have to tel them the truth. Tel them you didn’t do this!!”

Logan had to be lying. He had to be.

The color had leached from Ansel’s face; his eyes rol ed up at me. Hol ow.

“They said they would make me a wolf again.”

Bryn whimpered. Mason barked, circling Ansel nervously while glancing at me.

I backed away, limbs trembling. I wished I could run—somehow escape this awful truth. But I had nowhere to go.

Connor shook his head. “We’d better sort this out with Anika.”

“Agreed,” Ethan said. His eyes met mine briefly as he readjusted Sabine’s body in his arms, but I couldn’t tel if he was angry or just ful of regret.

A sharp whistle came from the dense maze of cornstalks around us, fol owed by several others.

One by one, Strikers, armed to the teeth, emerged from the field around us, encircling our group.

My packmates stood back to back, growling and facing off against the Searchers.

“Wait!” I shouted, throwing myself between the wolves and the approaching warriors.

I was surprised when Ethan came to my side, stil cradling Sabine against his chest.

“Stand down.” Anika stepped out from among the warriors.

Nev, Bryn, and Mason backed off slowly, watching the Searchers, stil bristling, waiting to see what would happen next. Ansel scrambled behind us, not speaking, hunched over as if he wanted to be as smal and unremarkable as possible.

“Thank you,” Anika said. She glanced at Ethan holding Sabine in his arms, then arched an eyebrow at him. His grip on the unconscious girl only tightened.

Anika’s gaze kept moving. When it settled on Shay, seeing him unharmed, she seemed to relax slightly.

She turned to Connor, voice like a knife. “What is the meaning of an unscheduled drop? And with Guardians in tow? You’re lucky we didn’t you attack on sight.”

Connor didn’t flinch. “Couldn’t be helped.”

“I expect a ful report.” She clucked her tongue.

“Where is Monroe?”

“Dead,” Adne said. “And the Keepers hit Denver.”

“How?” Anika gasped. “What happened?”

Connor looked at me, but he didn’t answer her.

“The alpha’s brother turned on her,” Logan said, trying to sit up. Connor shoved him back down.

“Who are you?” Anika walked toward the pair.

“My name is Logan Bane,” he said, glaring at Connor. “And I’m here to offer my help, if your muscle doesn’t kil me first.”

“Bane?” Anika said. “A Keeper?”

“Yes, I’m a Keeper,” Logan said. “But I’ve abandoned my father and the rest of my kind. I don’t belong there. I belong with you.”

“Not likely,” Connor growled.

“You’d be a fool to refuse my offer,” Logan snapped. “I’m handing you the Scion’s parents.”

“Tristan and Sarah?” Anika knelt beside Logan.

“For your sake, I hope you’re tel ing the truth.”

“I am.”

“Don’t listen to him.” Adne pushed Connor away as he tried to grab her. “He’s a Keeper. Anika, my father is dead!”

“Can we settle this later?” Silas limped to Anika’s side. “I don’t know how much time we have.”

Anika took in his disheveled appearance, frowning. “What do you mean?”

“The Denver outpost is compromised,” Silas said.

“That’s why we’re uninvited guests. If they managed to get their hands on the intel igence that’s housed there before the building burned down, they’l know where the Academy is.”

The color slowly drained from Anika’s face. “No.”

“Yes,” Silas said. “The Academy must be moved.

Now.”

TWENTY-SIX

THE SEARCHERS KEPT US
moving at a quick pace. Logan’s hands were bound, his every move scrutinized by the four Strikers who escorted him to the Academy. I would have been relieved by their stern treatment of the Keeper if they hadn’t treated Ansel the same way.

Though Logan walked with an undisguised smirk fixed on his mouth, my brother hung his head, stumbling between armed Strikers.

“We have to stop this,” I whispered to Shay.

“I know,” he said. “Once we’re back at the Academy, I’l talk to Anika. I don’t think they’l hurt him in the meantime.”

I glowered at him. “He doesn’t deserve this.

You’ve seen how broken he is. He just didn’t realize

—”

“I know, Cal a.” Shay took my arm, his eyes tel ing me to lower my voice. “I know. I’m on your side, but we have to figure out what happened before we can convince them Ansel isn’t a threat.”

I jerked away from him, darting forward to where Connor walked beside Adne.

“Connor, can’t you do something?” I hissed. “This isn’t Ansel’s fault.”

“Not now,” Connor said. “Even if I could do something, we don’t have time to sort it out.”

Adne’s face was like stone.

“Adne,” I began. “Please—”

“He’s right.” She didn’t look at me. “We don’t have time. We have to deal with that.”

She pointed to the massive structure that towered above the cornfields. Outside, the Academy was even more impressive than it was within. The immense structure curved away from us, its marble surface gleaming as the winter sun split through the heavy cloud cover. Four slender spires stretched toward the sky, interrupting the smooth curve of the building at equal intervals. Al four stories of the Academy were lined with windows, giving it the appearance of being fil ed with light.

I stared at the imposing structure, which loomed larger with every step we took. How could they possibly move it?

More Searchers were waiting for us as we entered the building. The bottom floor opened into the same structure of a hal way circling the central courtyard, but here the doors lining the wal s were spaced at much wider intervals.

“The Haldis team?” a woman whom I recognized as one of the other Guides asked Anika.

She nodded, her face grim. “It’s stil unclear what happened. But we lost Monroe, and the Denver site was infiltrated. Declare an emergency relocation.”

“You’re not serious?” The other woman gasped.

“I am,” Anika replied. “Go now.”

“But the Eydis Links haven’t finalized—”

“Now.”

The Guide ran into the Academy.

Anika began barking orders. “Alert the Pyralis and Tordis wings! The move begins in fifteen minutes.

Everyone to their designated posts!”

Searchers darted in multiple directions.

Anika turned to face the two sets of Strikers escorting Logan and Ansel. “Take them to the stockade. We’l deal with them later.”

“No!” Several Strikers raised their weapons when I grabbed Anika’s arm. She shook her head and they backed off.

“Cal a, I understand that the boy is your brother, but until we know the truth of this matter, he must be treated with the utmost caution.”

“Even if he told them about the hideout, I’m sure he was tricked,” I said. “You don’t know what they did to him.”

She pul ed her arm free. “I wil know in time. But I can’t address your concern now. I’m sorry.”

She nodded to the Strikers and they led Ansel away.

“Ansel!” I began to fol ow them, but Shay held me back.

“Wait.”

“They’re treating him like a prisoner!” I shouted, writhing in his grasp. “This isn’t his fault. He’s been tortured. We need to help him!”

“We’l figure it out,” he said. “I swear. We need Anika to know she can trust your pack. That has to come first, and then we can bring her around on Ansel.”

For her own part, Anika had turned to Connor.

“Can you explain to me what happened back there?”

“Not exactly,” he muttered, pul ing an envelope from inside his duster. “But Monroe asked me to give you this if he didn’t make it back.”

“He went into a mission with the idea that he wouldn’t come back?” Anika snatched the envelope.

“And how did you find the young Guardians? I was under the impression that we couldn’t locate them.”

Connor spoke without meeting the Arrow’s penetrating gaze. “It was an urgent situation, Anika.”

Anika’s eyes had narrowed. “Are you tel ing me that Monroe led a strike into Vail without authorization?”

“Yes.”

“And now he’s dead?” She shook her head. “And we lost Denver.”

“But we got the wolves,” Ethan said, glancing at Sabine’s unmoving form. “Some of them, at least.”

“Let’s hope that makes a difference.” Before she turned away, I saw a tear slide down her cheek. “We needed Monroe.”

“I know,” Connor said, his own voice thick.

“The Guides wil be waiting for me,” she said.

“We’l discuss this after the move. If we make it.”

With that she strode away.

“If we make it?” I asked.

Connor didn’t answer.

“Cal a.” I turned to see Ethan with Sabine stil resting in his arms. “I’m worried she might have internal injuries. I need to take her to the Elixirs.”

“The who?” Shay asked.

“Our healers,” Adne said. “They’re in the Eydis Sanctuary.”

“She might need pack blood,” I said, peering at Sabine. She wasn’t bleeding or bruised, but sometimes the wounds you couldn’t see were the most deadly kind.

Nev was hovering nearby. “I’l go with them. She can have my blood if she needs it.”

“Okay.”

Bryn and Mason approached cautiously. At last convinced I wouldn’t chase after Ansel, Shay loosened his grasp and I pul ed away from him. I knew he was being reasonable, but I hated feeling helpless about Ansel’s situation.

“What now?” Mason asked.

“You come with us,” Connor said.

The air was suddenly fil ed with a chorus of bel tones. The Academy pulsed with energy, the sound growing ever louder. Though piercing, the crystal ine chimes had a hypnotic melody—the wal s reverberated with their music. I watched as the hal began to shudder with the sound. The maze of colors threading through the marble hal ways undulated with each ringing note.

Adne bolted for the stairs. “I have to get to my post!”

“What’s happening?” Bryn asked. She took my hand, trembling.

Connor led us after Adne, though unlike the Weaver, he didn’t run. “The Weavers have to move the Academy.”

“How is that possible?” Shay asked.

“It takes precise coordination.” Connor glanced back at us. “Every Weaver has to pul the same threads to open a single door in unison.”

“But how can you get the building through a door?”

Shay frowned as we reached the second floor, heading to the next flight of stairs.

“The building doesn’t go through the door,” Connor said. “The Weavers move the door over the building.”