's

part that would f

what Heidi and Preston expected to happen in the grove. I did not give Hazel the whole pl

she said nothing. Her fear rose in the dark between us

ered at last. "We let them t

A small, dangerous smile touched my lips. "We are going to give them exactly what they want. And

opping even lower. "I need you

f burned. "No! Miss Fae, I can't! It's

g a confidence that slowly quelled her panic. "Trust me,

light of dusk, wrapped in my distinctive silver-gray cloak with the ho

, my eyes hard. "But I will be there. Before h

een me as timid and afraid, was now looking at a stra

ou will run. You will go to the old root cellar by the northern wall and

st and pulled out a tiny, carved woode

, but the pack's patrol hounds can hear it from a mile away. When you he

kles white. The fear was still in her eyes, but now

Miss Fae,"

eturn, touched my lips. "I knew I cou

be-the very one I had worn to my doom in my previous life. I draped it ov

om under my bed. From the dark space beneath

Inside lay a set of fine metalworking tool

f the art of smithing. I had dreamed of forging a magnificent blade for my Al

fore we go," I told her, not of

shocked anyone who knew me. I was not just Fae Graham, the wolfless Omega

ca of the ceremonial dagger H

o nicks, no scratches,

horizon, painting the sky in shades of

, cloaked sentinel, her nervousne

w silver dagger, identical in every way to

I took a small vial of a potent sleeping draught I'd acq

oice calm and steady. I handed h

drew the hood low over her face. With a final, determined n

nto the growing shadows. I took the hunter's path, a hidden tra

But this time, I