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Sam growled and Daphne translated, “He says, that’s not happening.”

“We’re too late,” I said, shoulders sinking. “We have to find the others too.”

Before we could ask another question, Em looked behind me and smiled, revealing slightly crooked front teeth. I didn’t have to turn to know it was Julian. The sudden breeze and scent of bergamot had already informed me of his arrival.

“It appears I missed the fun,” he said.

I glanced at him curiously. Surely, he’d heard the commotion. I supposed I should have been happy he hadn’t zoomed in to my rescue immediately instead of trusting me. But something told me he would have if he weren’t otherwise occupied. Which begged the question—what had he been doing?

“You’ll have plenty of chances to fight the bad guys,” Em assured him, getting my attention. “You guys are going to do a lot of that soon.”

Chapter Five

An Uncomfortable Truth

“Now what?” I asked as Mama handed out cookies and cups of hot coffee, or in Em’s case, hot cocoa. As soon as we’d portalled back to our place, Zoe had gotten on her phone and started on extra magical protection for the house while Mama had taken charge of everyone else, which meant making them comfortable despite the horrible circumstances.

“The perimeter wards are so tight I don’t even think we’ll show up on the base’s radar,” Zoe announced, plopping down on the couch between Em and our newest group member, Hazel, the witch sect leader and Zo’s new girlfriend.

I hadn’t loved the idea of inviting more people into our mess, but we needed her to help with the magical protection while we figured out our next steps. To her credit, she’d jumped to help—though a string of swears had proceeded her “what can I do?” when we’d looped her in.

Besides, her shapeshifting familiar, Karma, had morphed into his black bunny form and curled up in my lap almost immediately, making me feel so much better. Now, I stroked his soft fur as I sipped my coffee.

“We should probably contact the general,” Daphne said on a sigh. She sat on the carpet near the sofa.

“We just did like an hour’s worth of work to prevent him from finding us,” Zoe said, throwing her arms up. “Hazel and I each took two restore charms to do it.”

We all seemed to have different opinions on whether or not the general was part of the problem. But whether I wanted to go there or not, it was a distinct enough possibility that it couldn’t be ignored.

Julian stopped pacing on the other side of the room and avoided my gaze for at least the fifth time since he’d met Em. My need to know what the hell he was doing while we fought off the guards nearly eclipsed my concern about getting Em to safety before searching for the others. But where was safety?

“Daphne’s right,” Julian said. “We must operate under the assumption that the general was unaware of the genetic mutation experiments.”

Sam barked out a laugh around his cookie. “You can’t seriously believe that. He can’t possibly be that blind to what’s happening on his own base.”

Julian fixed his unblinking stare on the wolf who’d changed into a spare outfit he’d had in his Jeep after morphing back to his human self.

“It doesn’t matter if he knows or not. Acting as though he doesn’t is the safest recourse for everyone else in the room. If we accuse him, you all become enemies of SHADE because we’ve either wrongly called the head of the base into question or, more likely, if we’re right, forced his hand against us.” He took the time to settle his gaze on each person in the crowded living room but barely passed over me.

What the hell is he avoiding?

“But if we report it and handle it through proper channels…”

“He has to respond like we did the right thing and finish taking the program down whether he wants to or not,” Daphne concluded where Julian left off.

“I hate politics,” Sam growled.

“Who likes them?” Mama said, hands on her hips. “But the priority here is to get Em to safety, so while it’s a good plan for everyone else, I, for one, won’t allow that child back in SHADE custody.”

“Who can we trust to take care of her?” I asked, squeezing the girl’s hand as she worried the crocheted throw Mama had wrapped her in upon arrival. “She deserves a real home.”

“It wouldn’t be safe to keep her in the building or I’d volunteer,” Daphne said.

“She doesn’t smell like a shifter, but I’d take her in until we find someone,” Sam volunteered with a fist beat against his massive chest.

“And what do you know about child-rearing?” Mama challenged.

“Well… I would feed and protect her. I can teach her to defend herself too.”