“I will,” she said. “After.”

Sabine slipped behind him, wrapping one arm around his chest, pinning him against her body.

“Hey!” he shouted, eyes wide in alarm. His next words were lost as she pressed her bleeding forearm against his mouth.

He struggled to free himself, but Sabine was at full Guardian strength and had little trouble holding him still. She kept her arm welded against his lips, her blood trickling along his jaw. He flailed once more before he was forced to swallow. I watched something pass over his face—a mixture of fear and wonder.

The scene before me was too familiar, making me tremble. It was like watching a hazy reflection of the day I’d forced Shay to drink my blood. The same amazed expression had filled Shay’s eyes. Ethan clasped Sabine’s wrist, drawing her flesh further into his mouth instead of pushing it away. He closed his eyes and drank, shivering with ecstasy.

Connor, who’d been watching silently, uttered a sharp exclamation as the torn flesh of Ethan’s arm began to mend itself before our eyes. Shredded muscle rebuilt like new, skin closed up, completely free of scars. Ethan’s eyes remained closed. He was lost in the power of Sabine’s blood flowing through him.

When the wound had healed, she gripped his shoulder, leveraging her arm from his grasp.

“Easy there, tiger,” she murmured. “Or you’ll make me faint.” Her voice brought Ethan back to the roof, the cold night, and five pairs of eyes locked on him.

He twisted away from Sabine, jumping to his feet, limbs shaking. “That . . .”

His face took on a haunted cast as he stared at her, backing away. The expression dissolved into a scowl. “I didn’t want that.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, shivering as a gust of icy wind rushed over her bare skin.

Ethan’s eyes were still hard, but he shrugged off his leather duster and tossed it to her.

“I’m going to make sure there aren’t any wraiths finding their way up the fire escapes.”

Wraiths. Bryn whimpered. I glanced at her and saw that the pack, except Sabine, had reverted to wolf form. Nev and Mason pressed their muzzles against her, their own limbs trembling. I shuddered. It was too easy to imagine the torment that my packmates had been subjected to, the memories of fear and pain that would stay with them even though they were now free. I drew a slow breath, grasping for some way to ease my mind. We were lucky that only Guardians had ambushed us. We’d been able to fight them off.

Lucky . . .

“All clear,” Ethan said, returning to our huddled group. “No one came after us. Is Adne ready to open the door now?”

“She is,” Adne said, returning from her solitude. The tracks of tears still glistened on her face. “Are you sure no one is following us? They were outside before; that’s how I ended uphere.”

“What happened?” Connor asked. “How did you get to us?”

“After you’d been gone about twenty minutes, there was a lot of activity on the street outside the club—cars pulling up; I heard shouting and movement,” she said. “Dozens of Guardians went in through the side door. I worried I’d be spotted, so I closed the portal and opened a door to this roof. I waited until I realized you were in serious trouble.”

“What made you open the door inside Eden?” Ethan asked.

“I watched the club from the edge of the roof,” she said. “The Guardians kept coming. There were so many of them, and so much time had passed. I knew you’d be trapped. I decided I had to risk it.”

“Thanks for that,” Ethan said. “We’d all be kibbles and bits if you’d played it safe.”

“Guardians don’t eat people,” I said, frowning. “We never eat people.”

“You know what I meant.” He grinned.

“I’m just glad I was paying attention when your brother described the prison,” Adne said, offering me a thin smile. “Those were the details I used to weave the door.”

“How do you do it?” Sabine asked, pulling Ethan’s jacket tight around her body. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Adne can use magic to connect one place to another,” I said, trying to make the explanation as simple as possible. “It’s how they travel.”

“Neat-o.” Nev had shifted into human form. “And the Keepers don’t just follow you?”

“The Keepers can’t create the doors,” I said quickly. “I’ll explain that later.” I didn’t think now was the time to tell my packmates that the Searchers described our creation as a sin against nature. And I was distracted. Ethan’s words buzzed in my ears. No one had come after us. Why? We were hidden, but not that well. It would only make sense for the Keepers to comb the streets, even the rooftops, hunting us.

Fighting back more than a brush of nerves, I raised my voice. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense?” Connor asked.

“Our escape,” I said. “It was too easy.”

“Too easy?” Adne hissed. “My father is dead!”

Sorrow spilled through me. I hung my head, thinking of Monroe, of Ren. Of how close a father had been to reclaiming his stolen son. I wondered if Bryn, Mason, Nev, and Sabine would carry the marks of torment like my brother. They seemed fine now, but would the adrenaline rush of freedom be sucked away by misery when they realized that nothing in their lives would ever be the same? Had we truly saved anyone? Regret drowned my unease, sending me into a spiral of despair.