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unit.’
    â€˜Should we follow them to see what they know?’
    I return to the blackbutt tree, shoving a dead log up against it to sit on. ‘I’m gonna stay right here until I see Ebony.’
    She joins me on the log, and after sipping from our water bottles we go back to waiting.
    Hours pass before we hear noises again. We scramble to our feet fast, determined not to miss whoever comes through the portal this time.
    Isaac staggers out first. I hardly recognise him for the grime he’s wearing like a second skin. His clothes are all torn; hair matted, and while it’s usually bright copper, now it’s streaked dull red from congealed blood.
    He walks past us, and then stops and slowly turns. ‘Jordan? Jordan, you’re safe!’ He glances up at the canopy with a look on his face like finally something’s going right. ‘Are you well, lad?’
    â€˜Where’s Ebony?’ I ask.
    Silence stretches between the three of us. There’s not even a twitter from the flock of Aracals sleeping in the trees. Everything seems uncannily still. The only movementcomes from the flick of Isaac’s silver eyes to the portal, once, then again.
    Others are coming. They’re not far behind him. Maybe they got separated. It easily happens in the Crossing. Oh, God, let this be good news. Amber squeezes my hand and immediately lets go.
    Thane walks out. He looks even more haggard than Isaac. His eyes are glazed and surrounded by dark smudges. It’s as if he’s not inside his body, that he’s somewhere else and this is only his shadow.
    He looks exhausted and tortured and empty.
    And I know: he doesn’t have her.
    He glances around as if searching for something he expected to be here, and looks disappointed that it’s not. But beneath this momentary disappointment is a face I hardly recognise. I look at the portal again, waiting for a miracle. Panic swirls inside me. Amber catches my eye. She’s verging on panic too. To see Thane here without Ebony destroys the last morsel of hope we were carrying. I nod and lift my open palm at Amber as if to say, Leave this to me . I start walking towards Thane with one thought in my he ad. I bl ast it straight at him. Where is she?
    But Michael runs out of the portal right in front of me. He sees Thane and turns to him, missing me even though he’s only a step away.
    â€˜What’s going on?’ I ask.
    Michael jumps at the sound of my voice. ‘Jordan. I didn’t see you.’ He runs a hand, discoloured with dried blood and dirt, down his shirt as if he’s about to offer it to me to shake. ‘Good to see you’re all right. You had us worried.’
    Thane says, ‘The contingent is not far behind us. And Gabe says the cages will arrive any minute.’
    Michael exhales. Something weird is going on. Not that I care. There’s only one thing I want. ‘Where is Ebony?’
    Thane’s eyes go black, his irises opening and closing. He’s struggling to maintain control over his emotions. Shit. Shit! This is not good.
    Michael glances at Thane without answering. So that’s three of them who won’t tell me where Ebony is. Is it guilt that’s struck them mute? Thane swallows deep in his throat, licks his parched cracked lips, opens his mouth to say something but closes it again. It is guilt. It’s on his face. It’s in his body language. But by now I don’t care how choked up he is, how shaken or caked in blood or … or anything.
    Because now I’m scared. ‘Where is she? Somebody tell me!’
    Michael says softly, ‘She’s gone, Jordan.’
    â€˜ What? ’ It’s Amber, screeching. ‘What do you mean, gone? Gone where?’
    Isaac says, ‘The Dark Prince took Ebony to Skade.’
    â€˜Nathaneal, are they saying you don’t have her? That we don’t have Ebony any more?’ Tears well in Amber’s eyes as this news