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Her name had been Anne. No one but Giselle knew that. She’d never intended to go back to them, although she had someone keeping an eye on them, just to be sure they were always safe and didn’t need for anything. But with the Guardians waging war on humanity, she had to bring them to Horngate. They’d never survive otherwise. So now she was going to have to face them. If she could make Scooter let her go long enough to bring them back.
    If.
    She nearly laughed at herself. Here she was worried about what her family would say when she went to get them and what Niko and the others would say if she disappeared without saying good-bye. Only one could happen, but she was obsessing about both. Idiot .
    Tutresiel’s brows had risen as he considered her question. “You’re supposing I have friends.”
    “You’ve been alive a long time. You’d be truly pathetic if you hadn’t managed at least one or two. Unless they all died with the dinosaurs.”
    He smiled. “There are some who might miss me.”
    “So? Would you feel bad?”
    “Guilty conscience?”
    She looked away. “I didn’t want them to stop me, and they’d have tried. Probably would have succeeded, too, in the shape I’m in. Then they would have gone inside instead of me. I couldn’t let that happen. All the same, they’re going to be pissed that I walked out on them without a word.”
    “I take it you didn’t leave a note?”
    She shook her head. “I was in a hurry.”
    He shook his head, tsking. “Very thoughtless.” He patted his über-tight pants. “And me without a pen and paper.” His brows rose. “What would you have said?”
    She frowned. That was just it. Niko and Tyler were her best friends, and they probably didn’t even know it. She’d kept them at arm’s length. Lise and Oz, too—Oz was the Sunspear Prime, and Lise was one of his Spears. And Giselle. She was—
    Max didn’t know what the witch-bitch was anymore. What would Max have said to her? Bite me? See you in hell? Or maybe ….. thanks. She bit her tongue. Who’d have thought she’d ever thank Giselle for kidnapping and torturing her? But the witch had made her a Shadowblade and brought her to Horngate and given her a purpose in life. Not to mention giving her good friends. Just at the moment, all the pain she’d suffered seemed worth it. But telling the witch-bitch that—Max wasn’t sure she’d ever want to.
    And then there was Alexander.
    What kind of note could she have left him? Wish I could have licked you like a Popsicle?
    Only it went deeper than lust, as much as she hated to admit it. He knew what it was like to be Prime—the weight of responsibility, holding her people’s lives in her hands. It was a burden that no one else at Horngate could understand the way he did, except Oz and maybe Giselle, and she couldn’t talk to either of them. She’d never expose herself to Giselle that way. As for Oz, he was one of her best friends, but they’d been doing a flirting dance for so long that she didn’t dare do anything to tip the balance into something more. She didn’t want him that way—not the way she wanted Alexander. And man, she wanted him worse than a starving man wanted food. She rolled her eyes at herself. She really needed to get laid.
    She sobered as she eyed the door again. She should have left him some word. She more than wanted him. She’d opened herself up to him in ways she’d not done with anyone since before Giselle turned her. And she trusted him with Horngate. He’d guard it with his heart and soul. She knew it, even if no one else did. But they’d come around, especially if Scooter took Max. Giselle had already lost too many Spears and Blades, and she didn’t have the strength to make more at the moment. You didn’t just make a Prime quick from scratch. It took many years. Niko and Tyler were close but were still a year or so away. And even if they jumped to Prime tomorrow, Max was certain that neither of them could take Alexander in a