I sit up straighter. “You told Norah you’d spy on me.” The moment the words leave my mouth, I know I’m right.

Tessa’s hands drop to her lap. She turns to me, crestfallen. “No, it wasn’t like that. Before you arrived, I agreed to look out for you. Make sure you were adjusting.” Her gaze slides away. “And let Norah know how it was going.”

Bitterness hits the back of my throat.

“Those are just pretty words for spying. It was exactly like that.”

And then I think about how Bram waited outside the training room after my first session. About Norah whispering something to him before he joined our team. And suddenly it all clicks into place. I spin toward him and he flinches. The guilt is written all over his face.

“You too?” A swift waterfall of disappointment floods over me.

“Norah was trying to protect you,” he says. “We all were.”

I stare at him in stunned silence as he studies me with an expression full of questions. But I don’t have any answers. After everything I just confessed to them, I feel as if I’ve been kicked in the stomach, as if all the air has left my lungs.

Maybe it’s my fate to be betrayed by everyone I care about.

“I was wrong,” Tessa says. Her voice is small and soft. “I didn’t know you then. I do now. And I won’t tell Norah another thing without your permission, I promise.”

“I promise too,” Bram says.

I look back and forth between them. My heart feels made of lead. But I know what it is to have secrets. I have plenty of my own.

Talon lays a palm on my arm. “We won’t let Latham hurt you.” It’s such an earnest statement that it makes my throat feel thick with tears.

“I’m not sure you can stop him.”

Niklas leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “We can try.”

“There are six of us and only one of him,” Jacey adds.

Tessa puts an arm around my waist. “You don’t have to do this by yourself.”

I’ve felt alone for so long now that being surrounded by people who care about me is an unfamiliar sensation. But a welcome one.

“What do you need from us?” Jacey asks.

I wipe at my eyes. “I’m not sure yet.”

The ship turns slightly. Jacey lets go of her hair, and the wind lifts it, blowing it behind her like a banner. “When you decide, let us know. We’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

I close my fist around the pendant Avalina gave me. “I don’t know what to say.”

Tessa nudges my knee with her own. “Just say ‘thank you.’”

So I do.

Chapter Twenty