My mouth dried out. I stared at Ibrahim. His eyes were narrowed on Thalia.

“Why didn’t Odelia take the twins at birth if she knew what potential they had?” Ibrahim said. “She could have easily stolen them, just as she stole Sofia and sent her to Cruor. Then you would have run no risk of Rose falling into the wrong hands.”

Thalia averted her eyes to the floor. “Odelia was a conundrum.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean she wasn’t as rational in her thinking as most thought she was. There was a flicker of remorse in her for the trouble she caused the Novaks. She didn’t want to take away the babies too, as much as Hermia and I tried to persuade her. She hoped that the witches would not find out about the twins. I told her that was a foolish move. Of course, it was only a matter of time.”

“Are the black witches still interested in the immune, Anna?” Ibrahim asked.

“As I said, they will get everyone within The Shade. There’s no need for them to exert themselves separately for her anymore. Rose is their key to Ben, the immune, and the rest of The Shade’s livestock.”

I paused, frowning. So many questions had been competing in our minds, we’d forgotten to ask the most obvious one.

“How the hell do you even know all this about the black witches?” I asked.

She gave us a knowing smile. Standing up, she touched our shoulders and the room vanished. We reappeared in the city’s dungeon. I recognized this place. Though I’d rarely visited it, I remembered venturing down here once or twice when I was younger.

Thalia walked up to a cell a few feet away and pointed into it. Crouched in the corner was a ginger-haired man. His head lolling onto his chest, he appeared to be unconscious.

“We managed to steal one of their own. That’s how we know all this. Meet Efren Hansard. Formerly a resident of The Sanctuary. Turned traitor many years ago to join the black witches. We caught him sneaking around the borders of our realm. Since he has not yet become a Channeler, he’s not as powerful as Rhys and his family. I and several of our strongest witches were able to overpower him.”

Ibrahim and I gripped the cells, staring through the bars at the man.

“The black witches will be angry once they find out what we’ve discovered. They will double their efforts to bring us down. But we had to do it. We had to know what we are facing. Now we are in need of actual cooperation with a Channeler if we are to have any hope of retaining our freedom…”

Knots formed in my stomach. I dared not mention Mona, in case they weren’t aware that she was living among us in The Shade. But somehow, I suspected that they knew already. In fact, I suspected Mona was the reason Brisalia and her daughter had been hanging around The Shade. Perhaps they are concocting a plan to steal Mona away from The Shade… thus leaving it utterly defenseless. Despair clawed at my chest. I was grasping at any hope I could that they still weren’t aware of Mona, since Thalia had not mentioned her yet.

Although there were still so many questions churning in my mind, I finally asked the one question that had haunted me ever since she’d first opened her mouth. “Why would you trust us with all this information?”

I feared I already knew the answer.

Thalia gave a soft smile. “Oh, I needn’t worry about you telling anyone. Neither of you are going anywhere for a long time.”

Chapter 1: Rose

Every second that Annora’s hands remained wrapped around Caleb, it felt like they were wrapped around my neck. The worst thing was not being able to see Caleb’s face. I had no idea whether he was returning her passion, her affection. But when he reached behind his back and unclasped her hands from him, stepping away from her, I found some hope that perhaps I hadn’t lost him yet.

Still sitting half-submerged in water on the floor, I’d started to shiver from cold. But I felt numb to it. The shock of what that white witch, Hermia, had said about the black witches taking over The Shade, coupled with the shock of seeing Annora, had been enough to leave me numb to all pain. To make any bodily discomfort seem trivial.

As Caleb drew away from Annora, she tried to latch on to him. He placed her arms firmly at her sides. He cast a look at me. His face was ashen, more drained than I’d ever seen it. Then he looked away from me and straight ahead at the exit, focusing on neither of us.

“Those witches… We have no time to lose,” he muttered as he rushed out of the room.

It cut me how his voice sounded so distant, so separate, when all I wanted was for him to hold me and tell me nothing had changed between us. That his feelings still remained the same. That he still wanted to return with me to The Shade. But he didn’t.

Perhaps I am losing him.

Annora didn’t even look at me as she followed him. Reaching up to a metal ledge, I pulled myself up out of the water. I was knocked to the floor again as the submarine plunged downward. My stomach flipped, and I felt dizzy. Instead of trying to stand again, I crawled toward the entrance. It led to a flight of stairs, and a dryer area that hadn’t been exposed to the water Annora had let in whilst sucking us through the hatch.

I was surprised she hadn’t orchestrated the rescue to keep me locked out and only suck Caleb through. Though Caleb was holding on to me. I supposed that was the only reason. I imagined she would have taken pleasure in seeing those two witches above water take me away while she escaped with Caleb.

Still shivering, I gripped the railing in case the submarine suddenly lurched again. I found myself in a passageway. There were several narrow doors on either side, leading to cabins, I assumed. I grimaced. They were all closed. I guessed that Annora had closed the door to the control cabin.