“Alisa, dammit, I don’t know what the hell to do,” Gilroy said the instant she picked up the phone. “He hurt her. I don’t care what Korgan says. I think I’m going to kill him.”

“Sasha?” Her hand tightened on the phone. “What happened? Reardon? What did the son of a bitch do to her?” She jumped at the first thought she’d had. “Rape?”

She saw Margaret raise herself on her elbow in her sleeping bag across the cave.

“No,” Gilroy said. “That’s what I thought, too, when I saw her lying in the straw when I came into the stable an hour ago. Her clothes were ripped, and she was curled up in a ball in front of Nightshade’s stall. That’s what I asked her and all she’d say was that Reardon had beaten her because of Nightshade. Beaten her? She’s bruised and she has whip marks all over her back. Hell, she’s almost in shock. I did what I could. I examined her, and she doesn’t have any broken bones or pulled muscles. But she wouldn’t say anything more and just kept telling me to go away. She said she’d make sure Nightshade would be okay.”

“Nightshade?” That was as bewildering as everything else in what Gilroy had told her. “Nightshade, instead of Chaos? What happened there tonight? Is there any way you can find out?”

“How would I do that?” he asked sarcastically. “Go knock on Reardon’s door and ask? I guarantee if I did, he wouldn’t be alive for more than two minutes.”

“Do you think I don’t feel the same way,” she said fiercely. “I’m just confused and trying to see my way clear to how to help her. You absolutely can’t get answers from her?”

“I told you, I’ve never seen her like this. It’s not unusual for her to push me away. I doubt if she lets anyone close to her. But this is different. I don’t even know if she’s going to bounce back.” He was silent an instant. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I used the word ‘shock,’ Alisa. I need help. Tell me what to do.”

She closed her eyes. Gilroy’s worry was profound and dead honest, and it was terrifying her. Tell him what to do? She was lost in ignorance, darkness, and hate right now. She had no idea what to do.

Yes, she did.