It didn’t matter. Both were cave clan anyway, so she wouldn’t care. Their kind had murdered hers. She would avenge them, not be tricked into rescuing a lost cave clan girl. She would honor her loved ones.

But was she honoring them? a treacherous voice whispered to her. Was this what her family would have wanted for her? Would they feel venerated by the hatred she carried inside her?

Think about the person you want to be.

Words Silver had said to her down here in the dungeons.

Words her da had said to her years before on a starry night.

They came back to her now, clearer than ever, pressed upon her by the teasing darkness.

What did it all mean? Twelve buried her face in her hands, wished more than anything that Widge was with her to keep the terrible loneliness at bay. What she would give to feel his paws on her shoulder again.

What would Six give to have Seven back? The thought took her by surprise, but she already knew the answer: anything. He’d give anything, do anything, say anything, because Seven was his sister. Just as she’d do anything to have Poppy back, or Widge, because she loved them. He might be cave clan, but in this there was no difference between them.

What was it all for, then? Years of carefully planned revenge and the first cave clan people she met . . . she liked? Wild laughter and grief swooped through her and her ma’s voice whispered again:

Forgiveness is not the same as indifference.

Could she forgive him? It was the first time she’d considered the possibility and the thought almost tore her in two. He was cave clan. He’d lied.

But he had almost been a friend. Twelve longed for her ma with every fiber of her being, for her calm eyes and wise words. She would have known what was right.

Her ma would have hated her dreams of vengeance. Twelve knew it suddenly and so completely that it winded her. She would have been horrified to know the black things Twelve had imagined for the past two years. So would her da and Poppy. Twelve had avoided this hard truth by pushing away every thought and memory of her family. Everything they had stood for was the opposite of what she’d planned to do. She had allowed anger and hatred to poison her, to turn her into something they wouldn’t have recognized.