“The way I figure, about the only ones we can trust are wulfen.” Graves stuffed his hands in his

pockets, striding alongside me with long grasshopper legs. “Until we know who the traitor is.”

Christophe knows. I pressed my lips together over the secret. I used to spend so much time alone

while Dad was gone, and I’d wished to have other people around so hard. I’d hardly been alone

since I got here. The chaos at the front door of the Schola had turned into a face-off between the

wulfen boys with me and the djamphir boys trying to figure out what to do with me, until finally

someone had sent someone somewhere with a message. Orders came back while I stood on the

front steps in the weak sunshine, feeling cold, dirty, and very, very exposed.

Two minutes later Benjamin and his crew had shown up to take me to the room and hadn’t left me

since. I could shut the door and be by myself, kind of, if I didn’t have the weird sense that the air itself was listening to me.

“Yap, yap, little dog,” someone said behind me, but so low I couldn’t tell who it was. And it wasn’t

like many of them spoke up all that often.

Graves spun, an oddly graceful movement. I grabbed his arm. A pedestal next to him wobbled a little bit, dust puffing off the globe of luminescent stone perched atop it. “Stop it. All of you. Jesus

Christ.”

They all froze. Even Graves, who gave me a sidelong little look, green eyes glinting.

I decided to try to be tactful for once. “You guys can go on. I’m sure Graves can show me.” And if

he couldn’t, I bet I’d find it anyway. Someone would give me directions, or come to fetch me.

Benjamin inhaled again, like I’d just slapped him. “Milady. We can’t.”

That word again. Milady. What they called Anna. I wasn’t sure what to think about that.

“Sure you can.” I pulled on Graves’s arm, just a little. He visibly subsided. It was amazing. A crazy

wulfen and a loup-garou, and I hauled them around like they were baggage. They were stronger and

faster—at least until I “bloomed”—but they were boys.

I wasn’t sure if the word boys should mean dim or incomprehensible . I was hovering between the

two, with a healthy dose of testosterone-poisoned.

“We can’t.” Benjamin just said it, flatly. Like that was that.

I bristled. “You just toddle off to your rooms, and Graves will take me down to the Council or whatever.”

“We’re your Guard.” Benjamin was really getting on the you are so stupid tone bandwagon here. I

suppose it was only fair since I was snotty myself, but jeez.

“So you said a million times, but all you’ve done so far is—”