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execute him.
    “Hey now,” I heard a familiar voice say. It was Father McArio. He was usually in camp during the day.
    “Have you seen any suspicious activity?” one of the men grunted.
    “Yes,” Father said with conviction and my heart sank. “Out by my hutch. I was just coming to find you.”
    Thank God. I about collapsed against Marc as Father led the men away.
    I turned around, hands braced on his chest. His field jacket was rough, and dusty from the desert. He’d always been lean, but now he was coarser, harder.
    His gaze raked over me; his fingers traced me like he was trying to memorize every breath, every touch, every nuance of my expression as I watched him. I should have stepped back, but I didn’t.
    “I can’t believe you just waltzed into my camp,” I whispered.
    Marc drew a hand down my arm, as if any moment I’d bolt. A wry smile twisted his lips. “I didn’t think they’d forward a letter.”
    Most people I knew grew more cautious with war. Marc had grown more reckless. And while I’d never been a big believer in the rules, I knew which ones to follow in order to stay alive.
    I shook my head. He was nuts to try to find me. It was too cocky, too bold. “Can you at least try to be practical?”
    The corner of his mouth tipped into a grin. “I am. This was the best way to find you.”
    I snorted. “You still haven’t told me what you want.”
    His humor fled. “It’s complicated.”
    I’d figured.
    He checked his watch. “I need to get back soon. I’m with the MASH-19X. We’re set up about thirty miles away, on the other side of the Great Divide.”
    That was even crazier. “How’d you make it over?” The Great Divide was the line of demarcation for the immortal armies.
    He shrugged a powerful shoulder. “I flew out just before dawn.”
    I gaped at him. Sure, he was a shapeshifting dragon, but you couldn’t just breeze over hostile territory.
    “I had help,” he said, drawing me into the light. “This is important. I’ve been working on a big project with Dr. Keller.”
    He had to be kidding me. “Dr. Keller from Loyola?” He’d been Marc’s mentor, and one of my professors, too. Keller was tough but good.
    Marc nodded. “We were conscripted at the same time. Last winter, he called on me to help him develop a new medicine. Supposedly.” He frowned. “Research and Development is overseeing it.”
    “Interesting.” The gods tended to shun new technology, thinking the old ways superior. Any new medicines were usually the result of little labs like mine.
    The light played off Marc’s face. “We were only given one part of the project. That alone is unusual. But there’s also something off in the chemical structure. I don’t think it is what they say it is. It could be dangerous.”
    “This is war,” I reminded him. Hell, I’d already blown up my lab once trying to come up with a simple anesthetic that worked on immortals.
    His eyes narrowed slightly. “Believe me, nobody’s ever seen anything like this. I covered for Keller while he ran some special experiments,” he said, his tone grim. “Off the books.”
    “That sounds like Keller.” And Marc.
    “Until the night I was on call in the OR. He stayed in the lab. He was on the verge of a big breakthrough. I hadn’t seen him that excited in months.” He paused, his lips pressed together. “Then he disappeared.”
    My stomach twisted. I’d heard about how people disappeared in the old army. “Maybe he was transferred,” I said. It could happen.
    Marc shook his head. “We both know that’s not true.” He drew in a breath. “Now there’s a ghost in the lab. It’s destroying everything and I don’t know why.”
    My heart squeezed a little. “You think it’s him.”
    He gave a long sigh. “No one has been able to get close, but I’m pretty sure it’s Dr. Keller.”
    Marc was the only other person besides Galen who knew my secret. And while Galen sacrificed to hide me, “You want to expose