“She’s the body walker,” I whisper, hardly able to believe it. Then I clap my hand over my mouth.

What? Sebastian thinks.

Maeve. It’s not Ida; it’s Maeve.

Only one mind resides in Maeve’s head—one I know and love. I had no idea until now that it’s also the one that haunts our nightmares.

Sebastian pales, his dark hair casting his eyes in shadows and making his scar a stark white line. You must be mistaken. It can’t be. It must be Ida.

I shakily regain my feet. No mistake. I was wrong before. It’s Maeve. It’s been her all along.

His shocked silence is a stark contrast to the whirling confusion in his brain. That means Maeve is the one who took over Jemma. How could she do that? And then pretend to be our friend?

Tears burn the backs of my eyes. How could I have not known? Why couldn’t I tell? Perhaps it’s because I’ve only felt the effects of the body walking talent in use and never before the mind actually wielding it. Indeed, as I send my talent deeper into the cave, the shape of Maeve’s mind doesn’t feel like the victims I’ve seen. But every once and a while, there’s a sickly flare of something familiar…

She’s using her talent on someone. That’s it. That’s why it escaped my notice. She didn’t use it around us. She must have been careful ever since I told her I was a mind reader.

But who is she using it on? For a moment, I hope it’s Jemma, but I find no trace of her in the cave. If she’s here, she must be so far gone that she’s no longer struggling and I can’t sense her. Maybe that’s what happened to Ida too. But there are others. They’re screaming for help.

And I know them.

My insides have gone hollow, and my knees weaken. Sebastian is right next to me, quaking like a leaf in storm.

What now? What’s wrong? Simone, I’m too scared to even say a word aloud anymore.

She has Lady Aisling’s other shells. Our friends. Kalia, the dream eater. Natasha, the illusion crafter, Elias, the thought thrower, and Melanthe, the mind mover. I’m relieved she doesn’t have Finn as far as I can tell. He’s a mind changer and is deceptively dangerous.

Sebastian frowns. But what is she doing with them?

I shudder, recalling my earlier thoughts. They’re damaged like us. She must want to use them like Lady Aisling did.

Sebastian’s face shifts from horror to determination faster than I’ve ever seen it. We can’t let her do that. We have to stop her.

In that we’re of one mind. It’s one thing to betray us. It’s another to kidnap our friends who’ve only just been reunited with their families in order to use them too.

We have no choice but to help them.

Chapter Twenty

We decide that we’ll confront Maeve together. We lend each other our courage, what little of it we have left.