“Ritual preparation?” Shay asked. “Uh . . . no. I was knocked out. If there was anything that happened before I ended up in the woods, I don’t know what it was.”

Connor glanced at Shay. “You okay, kid?”

“I’m fine,” Shay replied, though he looked a little pale.

“Can we hold questions till he’s finished?” Monroe said, gesturing for Ansel to continue.

The group fell silent.

“None of us knew what was going to happen,” Ansel said, pausing for a moment. “Well—at least none of my pack did. We just thought it would be Ren and Calla together. We knew there would be a kill, but we thought it would be—”

He stopped, glancing around the room.

“Oh, how sweet.” Connor laughed darkly.

“What?” Adne asked.

Ethan grimaced. He rose, pacing beside the hearth. “One of us. They thought it would be one of us to kill.”

Isaac coughed up some of his tea. Adne handed him a dish towel.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room.

“That’s the past,” Monroe said finally. “Leave it.”

Ansel looked at Monroe and after getting a nod, he continued.

“We’d been waiting so long that Efron ordered some of the elder Banes into the forest. They started howling almost immediately. We all ran. Wolves and Keepers. Then I saw her.”

“Flynn,” Shay and I said together.

Ansel nodded. “I couldn’t stop staring. I didn’t know why she’d be in the forest in the first place and now she was dead, obviously killed by one of us.”

He paused, looking at me. “Did you know she was a succubus?”

“Not until she attacked us,” I whispered, remembering her wings, the fire that spewed from her throat.

“That was when everything went crazy,” Ansel continued. “Efron and Lumine were screaming orders. I tried to stay with Bryn, but elder Banes grabbed us. I didn’t know what was happening. They threw me into a car and then we were downtown.”

“Downtown?” I asked, frowning.

“At Eden,” he said. “But not in the club. Underneath it. Efron has some sort of . . . prison there. That’s where they took us.”

“Well, that’s helpful,” Silas murmured.

“What?” Shay asked.

“We didn’t know where the Keepers’ detention facility was,” Monroe said. “Keep talking, Ansel.”

“I didn’t know why we were being treated like the enemy.” His words were tumbling out now. “They put me and Mason in a cell together. And I think Fey and Bryn too—I didn’t see them, but I could hear them yelling.”

I began to tremble. Shay twined his fingers through mine, and I didn’t pull away.

“Nothing happened for a while.” Ansel’s voice was so quiet that we all leaned forward, straining to hear him. “They put shackles on us and wecouldn’t change forms. But that was all at first.”

Shay glared at Monroe. “You guys have a swap meet or something?”

Monroe didn’t answer.

“What?” I frowned, looking at Shay.

“They had those on you when we first arrived at the Academy,” he said.

“If she came to while we were moving her, she would have attacked without knowing what she was doing,” Connor said. “We didn’t have a choice.”

Shay opened his mouth to respond.

“Don’t, Shay,” I said quickly. “It’s fine.”

“And then they brought Ren down.” Ansel didn’t seem to have noticed any of our exchange. He was lost in the past, or worse, trapped by it.

At the sound of Ren’s name I jerked my hand free of Shay’s. Ren. Ren had tried to help us. He lied to the Keepers for us. What had it cost him?

Suddenly I could hear his voice. This is only about love. I felt his breath against my skin, his lips on mine. The fierceness of his embrace before I left him.

“And that’s when it started.” Ansel jerked in his seat, shoulders trembling violently.

“When what started?” Monroe urged gently.

“The punishments,” Ansel whispered. “The wraiths came.”

“Adne, you should leave now,” Monroe said, keeping his eyes on Ansel’s shaking form.

“No,” she said, despite her own trembling hands.

“It would be better if you didn’t hear this,” Monroe said. “I’ll fill you in when we’re through.”

“No,” she repeated.

“Why wouldn’t she stay?” Shay asked.

Monroe’s jaw clenched. He didn’t answer Shay, instead keeping his gaze locked on Adne.

Adne swallowed hard but straightened to her full height. “Wraiths killed my mother.”

“You should go,” Monroe said quietly. “Please.”

“It’s okay, Monroe,” Connor said, moving to Adne’s side and taking her hands in his own. “She’s strong.”

Monroe frowned, but didn’t argue further.

Ansel was still talking, shaking. “First they came into our cells with Lumine and Efron. They’d take us, one at a time. Making the others watch. Sometimes it was Emile and the elder Banes. We’d be chained up in human form and they’d attack, teeth and claws tearing at us. Enough to make you bleed but not kill you. Other times the Keepers would come and summon wraiths. Wraiths were worse than Guardians. Much worse. It’s like they swallow you whole and you’re trapped inside; you feel your flesh coming apart. It’s like being eaten alive slowly . . . so slowly. For a while you just scream. Then you pass out. When you wake up, they’re gone. But a couple of hours later they came back and it happened all over again. I could hear Bryn and Fey screaming sometimes.”