I’d met Sabrina briefly but didn’t know her well. She was about my age and had been an undercover member of the Warriors of Light for years. Her first meeting with Sydney had involved holding Sydney at gunpoint, which didn’t thrill me, though we knew now that Sabrina had been trying to protect Marcus. Over time, we’d come to respect her and the important job she did. She didn’t agree with the Warriors’ philosophy, yet she’d remained among them because the intel she provided was so useful to others. I certainly hoped it’d be useful today.

“Good news and bad news,” said Marcus, which wasn’t exactly the opening we’d been hoping for. “The good news is that we’re pretty sure the Warriors do have Jill. The bad news is that we don’t know exactly where she is.”

Eddie crossed his arms. “Time to free Alicia and get some answers.”

“Not necessarily,” said Sabrina. Her long blond hair was pulled up into a high ponytail today, and she looked very much like an ordinary girl, not someone posing as a member of a fanatical anti-vampire group. “My guess is that Alicia doesn’t know where Jill is either. She most likely caught Jill and delivered her to the Warriors, then let them hide her away somewhere. I snooped around and found reports of a ‘high-profile Moroi prisoner,’ but they aren’t even revealing her location to members in our own group. They might work with someone like Alicia, but they wouldn’t trust her much.”

The news wasn’t cheering me up, and Eddie shared my frustration. “Then what do we do if your own people don’t know where she is?” he demanded.

“Well,” said Sabrina. “Someone knows. Just not someone at my level.”

Marcus nodded as he swallowed a bite of his stir-fry, which by my estimation seemed to contain entirely meat and no vegetables.

Primitive, sniffed Aunt Tatiana.

Hey, lay off, I told her. Being a dashing fugitive probably requires lots of protein.

“We have some ideas to get to that someone,” Marcus said. “The first is to ask the Alchemists to do it. We know they have ties to the Warriors.”

“For all we know, they’re working with them,” said Eddie. “They have in the past.”

“On some things,” Sydney said slowly. “But not on this. They don’t want to risk the Moroi going into chaos. They want Jill back. They wouldn’t stand by if she was a prisoner.”

“Agreed,” said Marcus. His eyes met mine. “That, and they might intervene simply because they won’t like the Warriors overstepping their bounds. They’re nothing if not control freaks, and they aren’t going to like that the Warriors worked with a witch to interfere with the Moroi. Of course, that means someone has to tell them the Warriors have Jill.”