“No.” Alice jumps up. “No, Bree.”

Her stern tone shocks me into a confused laugh. “What?”

She swallows hard and raises her chin. “We’ve been talking and… we can’t keep going. You can’t keep going.”

I frown. “Alice, what are you—”

William paces forward. “There is no overnight training that can keep you safe from hired demon assassins or allies who have turned against the Order. Your root is unpredictable and your Legendborn powers…”

My cheeks grow hot. “I need time to train…”

“You don’t have that kind of time.” William shakes his head. “I’m sorry.”

“What are you saying?” I glance at William, then to Alice, and to Sel.

“What we’re saying is…” Sel strides toward me, eyes boring into mine. “You need to run and you need to hide, and you can’t do either if you’re off searching for Nick.”

The room feels as if it has tilted. The world feels as if it has tilted. I can’t fully parse their words, because it’s the exact opposite of what we came here to do.

“You have got to be kidding me!” I cry. “You can’t just make that decision—”

Sel stops a few feet away. “You need to go into hiding for your own safety. Become a ghost.”

I look among the three of them, waiting for this to be some sort of joke. Waiting for Sel to fight his own words. “You’re asking me to run away?”

“We’re not asking, Bree,” he says slowly. “We’re telling you. You have to run, or you’ll die.”

PART THREE CONTROL

30

I CAN BARELY speak. My brain struggles to create even a single sentence in response to what they’ve just done.

There is only one word in my mouth: betrayal. And inexplicably, this betrayal feels worse than Jonas’s. I didn’t know him, but I know my friends. I thought we were on the same team, but suddenly here we are, one on three. Like facing a mirror in your own home with full faith in who you’ll see, only to find it cracked and warped and wrong.

“I have to run?” I speak through gritted teeth. “Me?”

“Yes,” Sel answers. “You.”

“Have to? As in, I have no other choice?” My vision has gone blurry at the edges with tears and humiliation. “You expect me to just sit it out while you go after Nick?”

Sel’s lip curls. “You’re still talking about this like it’s a game and we’ve told you not to play it.”

I ball my fists at my sides, a scream just on the edge of eruption. “Isn’t that what this is? Isn’t that what you’re doing?”