bookcase. His breathing hadn’t changed. Neither had a single muscle. He looked at me, and Jesus. A

hot flush worked its way up from my neck, burned in my cheeks. The healed-up fang marks on my

wrist filled with an odd tingling, and I forced my fingers away from the warm metal of the locket.

He was smiling faintly, too. Something about the smile made me vaguely uncomfortable. I swallowed hard.

“You’re safe,” he said finally. And there it was again—the gentle tone, not his usual faint mockery.

He never sounded like that with anyone else around. “North wing. This was your mother’s room. I

had them bring your clothes up. Your computer and everything else will follow, as soon as they’re

scanned and pronounced safe.”

I just kept clutching the covers stupidly and staring at him.

“At sunset, they’ll hold my Trial. You needn’t worry, though. Everything’s going to be fine.” He

still didn’t move, except for his eyelids, a rapid blink. “And by the way, good morning. Would you

like some breakfast? Lunch? I suppose it’s lunchtime. For daywalkers, anyway.”

I had the unsettling sensation that the world had shifted out from underneath me again. “Graves.

Ash. Shanks, Dibs. Are they okay?”

“The Broken is in the infirmary, sedated and restrained. He might even live. Robert and Samuel are

both well; Samuel’s in the infirmary, too. He has quite a gift for medical work.”

Samuel? Oh, yeah. Dibs. “Graves? And Benjamin, Leon, the guys?”

“Benjamin and his cadre are very well, all things considered, and standing guard at both ends of this

hall. We’ll figure out a tutor schedule as soon as this unpleasantness is over, and—”

I didn’t care. “Graves. Where’s Graves?” Tell me you’ve found him. But I thought I knew.

I just wanted him to tell me I was wrong.

His mouth pulled down, just slightly, before the smile returned. It was a faint ironclad grimace this

time. “Nobody’s seen him, Dru.”

My chest squeezed down on itself. “But . . .”

“Every teacher and student is on the lookout. Unless the wulfen are hiding him in the dorms somewhere, and Robert swears they’re not. We’ve accounted for everyone, wounded or whole, except

him. No severe casualties from this attack, thank God.”

“Oh, God.” I found a word for what was boiling up in my throat.

It was the same old feeling. Abandonment. He’d left me behind, just like Mom and Gran and Dad.

Where the hell would he go?

I realized with a jolt that it didn’t matter. Away from me, he was safe. I just never thought he would

leave me behind. I honestly didn’t.

Except now I was horribly, awfully afraid that he had.

“Did something happen?” Christophe laid the question quietly in the sunshine-flooded room, and he

sounded like he really wanted to know. “Between you two?”