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called coffee with a smile, and I told her she was a good driver.
    Triona’s eyes lowered. “It’s my fault.” She rubbed her face with her palm and raked her fingers through her hair, dragging it away from where it fell.
    I stood quickly, yanking at the waistband of my jeans and shuffling from foot to foot, hoping to spare everyone from Triona’s earlier suspicion there was nothing to get back. There had to be some other explanation. We needed to keep from jumping to conclusions. It didn’t make sense that Zeal would kill Caleb and leave Triona behind. What did he have to gain, other than torturing her?
    “Suggestions?” I asked, darting my eyes around, all of a sudden worried I had answered my own question. Maybe he didn’t want to kill Triona, perhaps he wanted to hurt her…to make her suffer.
    “Where do you start?” Lewis said.
    “I’ve already sent out word for any information,” Samuel replied.
    “I will need to return to New York as soon as possible.” Eila stood again and Joshua stood beside her. “We’ve established a temporary safe house upstate for those once loyal to Zeal. People who’ve had access to information Zeal would rather stay hidden, historians, scientists, and those with gifts he coveted. Someone must know something.”
    “What about Vincennes?” I suggested, referring to the underground palace the Council had maintained in the small town near Paris.
    “There is nothing there anymore,” Annice answered with an unfamiliar tremor in her voice. “Eila and Joshua took care of it. The Council chambers were all but destroyed.” She took a quick breath and rolled her shoulders back.
    Joshua crossed the short distance across the room to his parents. He leaned in, placing one hand on his mother’s shoulder and pecking her cheek. Annice closed her eyes, as though absorbing the sensation and committing it to memory. Samuel stood and embraced his son warmly, slapping his back. Joshua appeared to melt into the comfort for a moment before he pulled back and nodded respectfully to his father.
    He then turned his attention to Triona. Walking toward her slowly and calmly, his gait and posture betrayed nothing of the turmoil he had to be bearing. If our positions were reversed and it was Caleb standing next to the door rather than my sister, I doubted I would have been as sensible.
    Amanda moved out of their way and came back to my side. Triona’s head tilted to the side almost indiscernibly. Her lips parted, and she blinked a couple of times, her long, dark eyelashes fluttering against her ashen skin. I wondered what was going on inside her head when she peered at Joshua. I didn’t think Joshua and Caleb looked alike, but I didn’t spend my time scrutinizing them. Perhaps Triona saw what I couldn’t. Whatever. The lingering seconds she spent contemplating Joshua’s expression—or the colors of his aura—appeared to soften her anguish. Her shoulders relaxed, and the creases across her forehead smoothed.
    A twinge of sharp and bitter jealousy sprang forward chased swiftly by nauseating guilt. What did it matter who succeeded in easing her mind? Rationally, I had no right to feel so possessive. Irrationally, the muscles in my legs twitched with the instinct to protect. Triona was my sister first. She was my family first. No one else in the whole world got us the way we got each other. Not even Amanda or Caleb. No one else was like us—Guardian, both stronger and weaker because of the human blood lacing our system.
    “There is one thing to consider,” Eila began, breaking the forced silence in the room. We all offered our immediate and rapt attention. “There was one other person at Tara. If revenge is Zeal’s motivation, he may be exposed.”
    Triona shook her head. “No. John isn’t a threat to Zeal. He doesn’t remember any of what happened. I made sure of it.”
    “His revenge is against you. John being a threat is irrelevant.”
    Triona’s jaw slackened as Eila’s words sank