“I’m not saying it’s her fault,” said Kara. “It’s just that the others still don’t really trust her.”

Alex felt a ripple of annoyance. “Well, then it’s about time they got over it. Besides, they trust her a lot more than they did.”

Kara sounded like she was choosing her words carefully. “They’ve gotten sort of used to having her in the house; it’s not quite the same thing. Look, I just don’t think taking her along on the first hunt would be great for morale when everyone’s going to be nervous enough as it is. And she’s not that competent with a gun yet anyway – there’s more minuses than pluses, that’s all.”

Her tone was so reasonable that it made Alex’s teeth grit together. “Okay, I think you’ve convinced me,” he said finally.

“You’re not going to take her?”

“No, I am,” said Alex. “Because she is part of the team, and you and the others need to start seeing her that way. She already can’t take part in the Council attack, or go into the cathedral. But there’s not too much danger on a hunt like this, where we’re all out in the open and can manoeuvre. There’s no way I’m going to tell her she can’t come.”

Kara nodded, obviously unconvinced. “Okay. Your call.” She fell silent, gazing at the TV as a commercial came on. When the news started again, she said, “You really love her, don’t you?”

He glanced over, taken aback by the wistful note in her voice. “Yeah, I do,” he said. “More than anything.”

Kara’s mouth twisted; she looked down at her nails again. “I can tell. It’s nice, you know? Once I thought that maybe me and Jake...” She trailed off.

Alex sat up a little, staring at her – and then realized he wasn’t that surprised. She and Jake had always been close, though he knew his brother had given up hoping anything would ever happen; Jake had told him once how he’d made a play for Kara and been completely shot down. Suddenly Alex felt as wistful as Kara had just sounded. God, Jake had been crazy about Kara, way beyond Alex’s own adolescent crush on her. Getting together with her would have made him so incredibly happy.

“So...why didn’t you?” he asked.