I SLIP BACK INTO MY ROOM.
“How’d it go?”
I’m startled, spin around. Xander stands there in the dark.
And it’s so hard to know what to say, what not to say. What is right and what isn’t right have gotten tangled and lost inside of me.
He knows. He comes closer, takes my hand, holds it gently in his like it is a precious thing.
“Doing the right thing is often the most difficult path to take,” he says. “But you do know what is right—for us and everyone like us. Don’t you?”
And the doubt eases inside. I nod.
He smiles. “Tell me.”
And I do tell him, everything Shay said, even though it means that his smile is soon gone. It tears into me to know how much this betrayal is hurting him. How much Shay is hurting him. That’s what she does, isn’t it? She betrays those closest to her. First Kai, now her father. She doesn’t deserve either of them.
“Shay intends to leave, to tell outsiders our plans?” he says. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. There is no doubt.”
“Let me see—every word,” he says. He joins with my mind and sees the whole conversation I had with Shay, not just the words but every nuance of feeling in her aura as she said them as well.
“Ah, Shay,” he says, his voice heavy with sadness. “First your mother, now you. I’d so hoped you’d be different—that being a survivor made you one of us. But I was wrong.”
“You can’t trust her,” I say. “Not anymore.”
“No. I can see that now.”
“You have to stop her.” And the pain of what Shay would do fills both of us. It’s such a waste of what she could have had with him, as his daughter.
But then his smile returns. “Thank you for doing this for me, Freja. And I’ve just had the most wonderful idea: Shay’s life will have meaning. She’ll be the beacon to lead us out into the world.” He holds me closer. “And you will be by my side.”