“I know,” I said. I slipped an arm around her. “Patience just isn’t always one of my better traits.”

As I was speaking, Sydney’s gaze wandered to something behind me, and I turned to look. It was her father and Zoe, entering the command center. They too froze for a moment, and then Zoe took a few steps forward, her face breaking into a smile, until a sharp rebuke from her father drew her up short.

“Zoe,” he barked.

“My own sister can’t come see me, Dad?” Sydney asked. “Afraid I’ll taint her?”

He flushed. “I heard you cut some kind of deal with Stanton. It wouldn’t have happened if I were in charge.”

“How are you, Zoe?” Sydney asked, directing her attention to the youngest Sage sister. “You okay?”

Zoe cast an uncertain look at her father and then gave a slow nod. “Yeah. You?”

“Come along,” ordered their father. “Let’s see how this operation is progressing.”

Zoe gave Sydney one last glance and then reluctantly followed Jared Sage to where some Alchemists were monitoring communications from the team raiding the Warriors’ compound. Sydney broke from me and went after them. “I want an update too,” she said. But when she reached the group huddled around the two people in charge of communications, Sydney waited until her father was distracted, asking someone a question. She touched Zoe’s sleeve and gently drew her back a few steps toward us.

“I never thanked you for not reporting me, back in the Ozarks,” said Sydney softly.

Zoe shook her head but kept an anxious eye on their dad. “It’s the least I could do. Sydney, if I’d had any idea what you had to go through there, I never would’ve turned you in. I thought they were going to help you. Honestly.” Tears brimmed in her eyes.

“How do you know what happened there?” I asked. Last I knew, the full details of what detainees in re-education endured wasn’t widely known.

Zoe didn’t answer right away, and from the uneasy way she regarded me, it was clear she hadn’t quite come to terms with a vampire brother-in-law. “Carly told me,” she said at last. “She heard it from some guy who helped you out. I think she’s dating him?”

Sydney and I exchanged surprised looks. “Marcus?” we asked in unison.

“Yeah,” said Zoe. “I think that’s his name.”

“That sly dog,” I muttered. It had been apparent when he and Carly met that he had a crush on Sydney’s older sister, but I’d had no idea he’d pursued her.

“I’m glad you’re talking to Carly,” said Sydney. “Do you ever talk to Mom?”

Zoe shook her head. “No. I wish I could, but Dad won’t let me. And he made sure the terms of the divorce were pretty absolute.”