“Sunaya, please.” Rylan stepped forward, annoyance in his yellow shifter eyes. He reached for my hand, but I backed away. “You can be mad at me all you want, but I was only trying to protect you. And yes, I was a loyal member of the Resistance, but that was before I learned they planned to wipe out the shifters once they were done with the mages. I may not agree with the current regime, but at least the mages aren’t trying to annihilate us. The human backers of the Resistance are just as much my enemy now as they are yours.”

“I doubt that,” I muttered, giving him a nasty look. But I detected no lie in anything he said. Much as I wanted to spurn him, he believed what he said. And we didn’t have time to find someone else.

“Besides,” Rylan continued, “Fenris didn’t just pick me for my good looks. I happen to have inside knowledge of the compound.”

“What?” I gaped. That was way too coincidental for my tastes. “How?”

“My unit was sent up here to guard the compound back when it was being built,” Rylan said. “That was over a year ago, when there was no ward yet. Things may have changed a bit, but probably not too much. I’ll be able to get in, no sweat.”

“Sunaya,” Iannis warned, drawing my attention back to him. “We do not have time to debate my decision to include Rylan on this mission. Lord Logar will be arriving tomorrow. We must get Annia and Noria out before then, or they will be killed.”

“Fuck.” I expelled a harsh breath, then closed my eyes and reined in my emotions. My feelings about Rylan weren’t as important as rescuing Annia and Noria. I had to put them aside, at least until after this was over. Rylan and I would have our reckoning, but not today.

“Fine,” I said, opening my eyes and pinning Rylan, my beloved cousin, my closest childhood friend and family member, with the fiercest glare I could muster. “I’ll work with you. But if I detect even a whiff of anything suspicious from you, I will rip out your guts and feed them to you. Is that understood?”

“Absolutely.” Rylan snapped his heels and saluted me. I bared my teeth at him, but he ignored me as he flashed another grin, looking around at everyone in the group. “So do we have a game plan, or what?”

15

We waited until sunset before Elnos and I snuck over to a spot about a mile down the main road, sticking to the trees for cover so that we wouldn’t be ambushed.

“Are you sure you’ve got the timing right?” I muttered as I crouched behind a bush. Even with the foliage to shield us, I had to shade my eyes with my hand against the brilliant sunset painting the sky in streaks of red and gold.