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us.”
    “Go on.” Monroe’s jaw tightened.
    “It was my job to protect Shay. I kil ed one of the men on sight.”
    “Stuart,” Lydia murmured. She and Connor stood alongside Ethan like two sentinels.
    “Are we done talking now?” Ethan’s voice was quiet.
    “Keep your head,” Anika said. “Winning the war is what matters. Wars make casualties.”
    “Her kind make the casualties,” Ethan snapped.
    “Look at her, Ethan. She’s just a girl,” Monroe said. “Remember what we’ve talked about. The Guardians aren’t what they seem. She may be able to help us bring them over to our side.”
    The gentleness of his words startled me. I wasn’t too keen on his cal ing me “just a girl,” but I was glad enough that revenge wasn’t what Monroe was after.
    Unfortunately his perspective wasn’t shared by everyone in the room.
    Ethan’s face contorted, twisting with outrage. In the next moment his crossbow was off his shoulder and aimed at me.
    “Stand down, Ethan!” Anika shouted.
    Connor wrenched the weapon from his hands.
    “Maybe you should leave.”
    “I don’t think so,” Ethan replied without looking at Connor. “What happened to Kyle?”
    “Other Guardians showed up,” I said, watching Shay step in front of me, almost blocking my view of Ethan. “They said the Keepers wanted him alive.”
    Ethan nodded, the veins in his neck throbbing.
    “And?”
    “They brought him to Efron Bane for questioning,” I said. I had to close my eyes, abruptly awash in the horror of that night—the way Efron had leered at me, how my skin had crawled at his touch. The sickening sensations gave way to rising anger. Let’s see him try that again—this time I won’t sit still and take it.
    “Were you there?”
    “Yes.” It felt like I was back in that office, hearing the Searcher’s screams while Ren gripped my hand.
    I shuddered.
    “Did you do the questioning?” He looked calm.
    Too calm.
    “No.”
    “Then who did?”
    “Ethan, this has gone far enough,” Monroe interrupted. “You know what happened to Kyle. We saw him at Rowan Estate. It’s over; let it go.”
    Ethan glared at Monroe. “I have the right to know what happened to my brother!”
    Brother? Ethan’s hateful glances, his constant sul enness—al of it made sense. Twinges of sympathy pinched my chest. I cleared my throat, which was suddenly thick as Ansel’s face flashed in my mind. “I’m sorry you lost your brother. I have a brother; if anything happened to him . . .” What was happening to my brother? And to Bryn, who is as close to me as a sister could be?
    He turned wild eyes on me. “So tel me—”
    “Wraiths,” I said quickly. “They always use wraiths to interrogate prisoners.”
    “Wraiths?” His voice was strangled now. “They gave him to wraiths?”
    His eyes closed for a moment, then his hand went to his waist. I saw the flash of steel as he drew a dagger from his belt. My body tensed, ready to shift in the next moment.
    “And you were there,” he hissed. “He’s Fal en, and you were there. You soul ess bitch, you could have stopped it!”
    When his eyes opened, they blazed with grief-fil ed rage. He took a step toward me, the dagger held low. I was about to lunge at him when Monroe stepped between us. In the same moment Shay dropped to the floor—a golden brown wolf hunched defensively just in front of me. He bared sharp fangs at Ethan, snarling.
    Ethan’s smile dissolved and he paled even more.
    “And you’re the one who made the Scion into a monster. I’l flay you myself and wear your skin for a coat.”
    Shay tensed, his ears flattening as Ethan lunged.
    “No!” Anika shouted.
    Monroe’s arm shot out, catching Ethan around the waist.
    “Lydia, Connor, get him out of here!” he shouted as he restrained the furiously struggling man. “We’l deal with this later.”
    Spittle and a string of curses flew from Ethan’s mouth. The two Searchers rushed to aid their leader.
    With considerable effort they