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that this Hierophant dude sent one of his evil minions to the abbey to off Spar means that the Order knew where he was.” She nodded and fixed her friend with a sharp gaze. “Do you think they know where to find the others?”
    “We have no real way of knowing,” Ella said. “I hope not, because we’re having a heck of a time finding them ourselves. Kees and I have made that our top priority, but without records it’s slow going. We’ve been following leads to a few surviving Guild members in the hope that some of them will have information, but most of them have gone into hiding. They don’t want the nocturnis to find them, and we’re paying for that right alongside the bad guys.”
    Fil’s eyes narrowed, and Spar noticed her knuckles turning white where she continued to grip the blanket around her shoulders. He could detect no real anger in her expression, but he could see a hint of suspicion and something else that tugged at him down in his gut. Something like vulnerability.
    “You say ‘we’ pretty easily there, El.” He had noticed the way she used her friend’s shortened name when she expected a displeasing response. “How exactly did you say you got mixed up in all this anyway? You didn’t forget to mention someone tried to blow you up, too, did you?”
    The camera showed the other couple exchanging a meaningful look before Ella turned back to answer. Spar did not miss the way his brother laid his hand over the human’s shoulder, as if offering his strength, and he had a feeling Fil didn’t, either.
    “No, no bombs on this end, but it’s kind of a long story. Let’s just say that I accidentally managed to wake up Kees, which confused him almost as much as it confused me. I offered to help him locate his Warden, and by the time we found out Gregory was dead … Well.” The woman shrugged. “By then, I was already in it up to my eyeballs, so it seemed a little late to try to bury my head in the sand.”
    Spar could practically see the gears turning in his little human’s head as she connected the dots between what Ella had just revealed and the rest of the information her friend had recently dumped on her. The question she asked then was one Spar, too, wanted to hear answered.
    “Wait a minute. You woke up Kees?” Fil demanded. “What happened to that neat little story you just told me about how the Wardens were the ones in charge of waking up the Guardians and then tucking them back in for nap time?”
    Ella hesitated. “We have a theory about that, but it’s just a working assumption at the moment. You see, it turns out that I kind of am a Warden.”
    She must have noticed Fil’s baffled expression, because she rushed to clarify. “Only kind of, because I haven’t had any formal training of course. With the Guild scattered to the four winds, it’s not like I have a mentor guiding me through a series of lesson plans. I’m studying a few materials we’ve been able to dig up, and Kees is helping as much as he can, but we think that if the Guild had been operating normally I would have been recruited years ago and done the whole apprenticeship thing, the way it’s supposed to happen.”
    The news took Spar by surprise, and—judging by her expression—that word barely scratched the surface of what Fil was feeling about it. He watched confusion, understanding, shock, and bafflement play across her features before she uttered a ragged half laugh.
    “For that to have been the cause, I would have to be some kind of magic user, too, right?” Fil shook her head. “El, come on. I don’t even own a rabbit, let alone a top hat to pull one out of.”
    “Magic, Fil, not illusion. Trust me, I’ve learned a lot over the past couple of weeks, and one of the most important lessons for me was that magic is just another word for ‘energy,’ and a magic user is nothing more than a person who can work with that energy on a level above the average human being.” Ella gave her a level look.