Cautiously, we clamber down from the top of the cavern opening. The threshold is rocky and sharp, and I flinch at every noise we make. I’m surprised Maeve doesn’t hear us coming. Her focus and concentration must be divided elsewhere. It’s a tiny bit of luck, but we’ll happily take it.

When we’re about ten paces away, I call out. “Maeve?”

Half of me hopes I’m wrong, and when she turns around, she’ll be overtaken by the body walker—someone who isn’t her. The other half of me aches with the heavy burden of the truth.

She whirls at my voice, surprise written all over her face.

“Simone? Sebastian?” Then her expression settles. “You followed me.”

“We did,” I say. “We thought the body walker had captured you. We wanted to help.” A sudden lump forms in my throat.

She raises her eyebrows. “You thought the body walker had me?” She moves toward us, and we unconsciously take a step back. “What’s this now?”

“We know,” Sebastian squeaks.

“Know what?” Maeve says.

She reaches for him, and Sebastian shrinks back. She frowns, then laughs. “What is the matter with you?”

“Why?” I breathe out the word softly, yet it still manages to echo off the walls of the cavern.

“Why what? Simone, what is going on?” Maeve places her hands on her hips, and for one moment she seems just like she always has. But I dip into her mind, prying deeper than usual. Her determination that I attributed to wanting to find out what happened to her family has warped into something darker. Her fierceness that I chalked up to loyalty has taken on a cutting edge.

But before I can delve too deeply, her thoughts calm and smooth over. I cannot see beneath them anymore. She knows how to conceal things from me, and that realization shocks me.

Maeve’s mind has always been orderly. I never knew that was because she had so much to hide.

“We know what you are.” I choke out. Speaking the words is a physically painful thing.

She folds her arms across her chest. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re the body walker. You’re the one who took over Euna. You took over Sebastian’s sister, Jemma. You probably took Ida too.”

“Where is Jemma?” he whispers. “What did you do with her? Why hasn’t she met us here yet?”

A look of innocence crosses her face. “That’s absurd. You’re just confused. I’d never do that. You know me better. I’ve protected you both, cared for you when there was no one else to help you.”

I think back to the time we met Maeve and recall encountering the confused man lost in the woods and the strangeness of the empty, yet recently used shack. She must’ve taken him over and abandoned him far enough away to be so lost that she could use his home herself for a little while. And then we happened upon her.

Did she know from the very start what Sebastian and I were? That we were talented? A sick feeling worms its way over my body.