Barrett shoved to his feet and managed to remain standing. “I haven’t betrayed you!”

“Then destroy the evidence. We’re in this together—against both the naturi and the Coalition. We’ve all promised to watch out for each other against the Coalition. What have I done to earn this animosity?”

“Nothing. I—I was just trying to protect my own people. You’re powerful, Mira. You’re an unstoppable force, feared across all the continents. What if you suddenly decided to turn on my people? How would I protect them?”

“So you chose the Coalition? So you came in here tonight and threatened to hand me over to the naturi? Until now I had no reason to turn on the lycanthropes. I handed you Nicolai, who is important to me, because I trusted you to watch out for him.”

“I’ll destroy the evidence!” Barrett quickly said. He reached out to take my hand, but I took a step away from him, unwilling to bear his touch at that moment.

Since taking his blood, I had been in his thoughts, reading his emotions without his knowledge. He was telling the truth. He was also terrified I would report him to the other packs that he was potentially making deals with both the naturi and the Coalition. He was on thin ice and we both knew it. I had never wanted to put him in this position, particularly since the Coven already tried to make a bargain with the naturi. Our hands certainly weren’t clean. However, I still needed Barrett’s assistance.

“I believe you,” I murmured, wishing I could give him some other kind of reassurance, but I wasn’t feeling too forgiving at the moment. “But I have one last request.”

“Name it.”

“Someone among the lycanthropes has already begun to deal with the Coalition.”

“Are you sure?” Cooper inquired, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“While I was in London, I ran across a witch and a lycanthrope traveling with a member of the Coalition. They both attacked Tristan and me. They could have walked away, but didn’t. They had chosen a new side. I want you to look into what’s going on.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Barrett agreed.

“The lycan was called Harold Finchley. I want to know who his pack was. I want to know if there are others like him. I want to know if we’ve been betrayed.”

“I’ll find out.”

“We’ll find out,” Cooper corrected, coming to stand next to his older brother.

“Good. You handle the Coalition and I’ll get rid of the naturi. Now get out of here. I need to rest.”

Barrett nodded and allowed his brother to lead him out of the nightclub and out into the slowly dying night. I slumped onto the sofa the moment they were outside the club, the last of my strength seeming to drain from my body. Sunrise was but an hour away. I had just enough time to catch a taxi back to my home outside the city. I’d endured enough blood, pain, and betrayal for one night.

It was a couple hours after sunset the next night before I was able to meet up with Danaus. Dawn had been too close when I finally left the Dark Room the previous night to try to see him. Besides, I still had to make sure that Tristan was comfortably settled and healing before I climbed into bed myself at daybreak. There was simply too little time to handle it all. The only cold comfort I did find before succumbing to the dawn was that Amanda would be safely out of the hands of the naturi during the daylight hours. They might have her body, but her conscious mind was beyond their reach, making torture worthless for at least a few hours.

But they were waiting for her when she awoke tonight. I heard her screams in my mind when I woke at sunset. Reaching out with my powers, I found Amanda was to the south of the city, out in the marshes. I connected with her mind long enough to discover that she was on an island. By what I could quickly pick out of her thoughts, I was willing to bet that she was being held out on Blackbeard Island. Knox and Tristan had been sent ahead to procure us a boat. It was my job to convince Danaus to come along for the hunt.

However, standing on the front porch outside my town house, my hand on the doorknob, I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to convince him to join us in this insane venture. It was obviously a trap. The goal of the naturi was to get to me, and I was willingly walking into it because the bait was one of my own. Common sense said that the naturi would kill Amanda either before I arrived or just as I set foot on the island. I had little hope of actually saving her. The risk I was taking didn’t make sense, and yet I felt that she was one of my own. I had offered her entrance into my family and couldn’t turn my back on her now because it wasn’t convenient to my own plans.

Unlocking the front door, I strolled in through the foyer, but my footsteps quickly dragged to a halt when I sensed that Danaus wasn’t alone. There was a woman with him. My teeth clenched and my hands balled into fists as I forced myself to step into the front parlor. Both he and the pretty blond woman jerked to their feet at the same time as I entered the room, their low conversation falling silent.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized snidely, my dark gaze leveled on the hunter. “I didn’t realize that I had left you with enough time to go out on dates. Apparently, I hadn’t properly explained the seriousness of the situation in which we find ourselves.”

“She’s not a date. This is the earth witch I told you about,” Danaus said. “She’s agreed to help you.”

“Hi!” the woman exclaimed. “I’m Michelle French, but you can just call me Shell, or Shelly. That’s what all my friends call me. Except my dad. He calls me Seashell when he thinks he’s being funny.”

It was all I could do to keep my mouth from falling open during this exuberant introduction. She was the epitome of perky, with her upbeat attitude and sunny disposition. Even her clothes shone, a pale yellow shirt and white shorts. I was willing to bet that she’d been a cheerleader during high school, maybe even through college.

“Yeah,” I drawled while dragging my gaze back to Danaus, who was looking at me levelly. Shelly was not the type of person either of us typically associated with. Most of our encounters were with other dark creatures that understood our world revolved around the basic tenet of kill or be killed. “Can I have a word with you in private?”

“Oh sure,” Shelly said in her sweet, chipper voice. “I’ll just run upstairs to my room and finish unpacking while you and Danaus talk.” With a bounce in her step, Shelly swept by me and skipped up the stairs to the second floor. I waited for the bedroom door to close before I opened my mouth.

“Have you lost your mind? Where the hell did you get her?” I snapped, shoving both my hands through my hair.

“Charleston,” Danaus simply replied, further fueling my anger when he refused to elaborate.

“Is that how they are in Charleston?”

“Sweet and happy is not a crime, you know.”

“It is in our world. Why did you bring her here?”

Danaus sat back down, watching me pace back and forth through the room, weaving between the sofa and the coffee table. “You said that you needed someone to teach you how to use earth magic. She can do that.”

“She’s an earth witch?”

“She’s an earth witch and one that hasn’t sided with the naturi. That type of earth witch isn’t easy to find, particularly when your name comes up. She’s willing to help you.”

A snort escaped me as I paused in my pacing to face him, my arms folded over my chest. “I find it hard to believe that she will be able to help me.”

“And I find it hard to believe that she’s willing to help you,” Danaus lectured, pushing to his feet again and coming to stand directly in front of me. “Outside of Savannah, you’re seen as a walking pestilence. Savannah has become a war zone and no one is willing to come here. But she was, so I would get off your high horse and give her a chance.”