She smiled, but it was a joyless expression. “We need you to go back to Vail.”

I hoped I’d managed to keep my expression neutral. Go back to Vail. That was what I wanted, wasn’t it? Then why did it feel like my skin had turned to stone?

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Shay stepped forward, half shielding me from Anika’s piercing gaze. “They’ll kill her the minute she sets foot back there.”

I shot a stern look at Shay. He wasn’t wrong, but I’d been born to fight. My initial shock at Anika’s words had dissolved, leaving my canines sharp in my mouth. I’m an alpha, Shay, not a pup. You’d better not forget that.

“Not back into her life,” Anika said. “Now that you’re here—you, the Scion—the war will rage without ceasing. The Keepers will come at us with everything they have. We need to gain the advantage.”

“How will sending her back to Vail give you any advantage?” Shay asked.

“We want to try something.” Monroe put his hand on Shay’s shoulder, pulling him back. “Something that worked a long time ago. An alliance.”

An alliance. The Harrowing. The first Guardian revolt. It was all falling into place.

“Oh,” I said, feeling both a surge of hope and a skittering fear beneath my skin. War. The Searchers are going to war and I’m their first volley. My shoulders tightened at the thought of battle, powerful, ready.

“Wait a second.” Shay shrugged Monroe’s hand off. “You mean an alliance with the Guardians?”

“It’s happened in the past, and made a huge difference in our ability to resist the Keepers.”

Shay shook his head. “That’s not how I read it. I know about the Harrowing. You’re lucky the Guardians aren’t extinct.”

Stop trying to protect me. He ignored my warning growl, keeping his eyes on Monroe.

“The Harrowing ended badly,” Monroe said. “But for a time it was a successful endeavor. This time such an alliance could be the difference between winning and losing.”

“And there’s one vital piece we have that didn’t exist at the time of the Harrowing,” Anika said.

“And what’s that?” Shay asked.

“You,” she said.

Now it was Shay’s turn to say, “Oh.”

I watched him, wondering if he’d learned anything more about his own role in the mystery we’d unraveled in Vail. Anika had called him vital—the difference between why the Harrowing had failed and why the Searchers thought they could win this war now. I hoped she was right, considering what saving Shay had already cost me.

“Why?” Ren hissed. “What about him is worth risking your own life?”

“He’s theScion,” I whispered. “He might be the only one who can save us. All of us. What if our lives belonged only to us? What if we didn’t serve the Keepers?”

I remembered the words passing from my lips, but there had been another question. One that I hadn’t dared voice to Ren. Not when my life and Shay’s were on the line.

What if I could choose my own fate?

My body quaked at the flash of memories. I loved Shay. From the first moment he’d touched me, he’d wakened parts of myself I hadn’t known were slumbering. Our secrets, stolen moments, forbidden kisses, what we’d both risked for each other—all of it had led to the choice that brought me here.

I turned from the path of my destiny because I couldn’t let him die. But that wasn’t the only reason I’d fled Vail. The world I’d known had crumbled around me. An alpha protects her pack. Leads them. I’d abandoned them, but only because I’d believed it was the only way I could save them.

Jumping on Shay’s distraction, I seized the moment to stake my own claim in this fight. Despite my wariness of the Searchers, I needed their help. This might be the chance to get my packmates away from the Keepers.

“Yes,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

“Calla,” Shay began.

“No,” I said, silencing him with a glare and flash of my teeth. “They’re right. An alliance is what I want. What my pack would want.”

“Good,” Anika said.

I thought I heard Ethan grumbling as he stalked back to the corner where he’d been sulking before Lydia and Anika arrived.

“We could use some logistical information before we move forward,” Monroe said.

“I’ll tell you what I know,” I said. “I’m not sure how much it will help with planning an attack.”

“Anything will help,” he said.

Good.

“But let’s start close to home. We lost two Searchers in late autumn. Do you know what happened to them?”

Not good. I managed not to cringe. This wasn’t going to help with forging a new alliance.

“I do.”

One question and they’ll probably kill me if I answer it truthfully.

“Calla, wait.” Shay stepped closer to me, a warning note in his voice. I was certain his mind had jumped to the same dire place mine had.

I shook my head. “If they want an alliance, they need to know who they’re making it with.” And if they want revenge, so be it. I glanced around the room. The doors were closed. Solid, but not solid enough to withstand a Guardian crashing through them at full speed. I can make it if I have to run.

“But—” Shay’s fingers wrapped around my wrist.