A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I screamed.

“Easy there, Sage. I’m no gun-toting crazy guy. Crazy, yes. But not the rest.”

I stared in disbelief, not that I could really make out much of the tall, dark figure standing over me. “Adrian?” The height was right, as was the build. As I stared, I became more and more certain. His hands steadied my shaking. I was so glad to see a friendly face—to see him—that I nearly sank into his arms in relief. “It is you. How’d you find me?”

“You’re the only human out here with a yellow and purple aura,” he said. “Makes you easy to spot.”

“No, I mean, how’d you find me here? At the compound?”

“I followed the others. They told me not to, but… well.” In the faint moonlight I could barely see his shrug. “I don’t follow directions well. When Castile came out with Sonya and started babbling about how you’d gone out some random door, I thought I’d take a quick walk around. I don’t think I was supposed to do that either, but the guardians were kind of busy.”

“You are crazy,” I snapped, despite how happy I was to know I hadn’t been abandoned in this miserable place. “The Warriors are so mad that they’d probably kill a Moroi on sight if they saw you.”

He tugged my hand forward. Even through his banter, there’d been a hard tone to his words. He was fully aware of the danger we faced. “Then we’d better get out of here.”

Adrian led me back in the direction I’d come, then went around the opposite side of the building. I didn’t see the freeway lights yet, but he soon turned and began running toward the property’s far edge, away from the building. I ran alongside him, still holding his hand.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“The guardians assembled near the back side of the compound, so they wouldn’t be spotted. That part of the fence has been deactivated—if you can climb it.”

“Of course I can climb it. I’m practically a prodigy in PE,” I pointed out. “The question is, can you, Mr. Smoker?”

The fence began to come into focus as we approached, mostly because its shape blocked some of the stars. “That’s the section. Behind the scraggly bush,” Adrian said. I couldn’t see any bush but trusted in his eyes. “Go a little ways past that, and there’s this country highway that the guardians used as a staging point. I’m parked there.”

We came to a halt in front of the fence, both of us a little breathless. I peered upward. “You’re sure it’s still off?”

“It was when we came in,” said Adrian, but I could hear a little uncertainty in his voice. “You think those guys would have gotten their act together enough to fix it already?”

“No,” I admitted. “But I’d still like to know for sure. I mean, most commercial electric fences won’t significantly hurt someone, but we should know.”