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“Take your time,” I say. “Have another biscuit. But we really do need to know what’s happened here.” I press my lips together, then ask the question that’s been on my mind since I saw the village in ruins. “Is Hecate alive?”

Winter licks her lips. “I think so,” she says. “I buried the bodies after they left, and she wasn’t there. So I think she must have survived.”

Christ. She buried twenty-two bodies. No wonder she looks like she’s about to collapse.

“Hecate and whoever survived must have left in a hurry,” she continues. “I don’t blame them.”

“Why didn’t you go after them? Or go with them?” I ask.

“I was at Selene’s temple when the attack happened.”

I remember Winter once told us that her people still worship the goddess, or at least, they did until they were all killed. “I didn’t know until I saw the smoke from the shadow fire rising above the village. By the time I got back, it was over. The shadowguard were dead, and Hecate and whoever was left were gone.”

I think of something. “What about Erik?” Erik had worked for Hecate. He’d been a friend.

“I didn’t bury him,” Winter says.

I’m glad; I liked Erik.

“Why didn’t you follow them?” I ask.

“Hecate must have covered her tracks with magic. I don’t know where they went. So I stayed here. I’ve been here ever since.”

“When did it happen?” Zayne asks.

“Not long after Amber left,” she replies. “Only a few days, I think.”

I calculate. “So it’s been nearly a month? You’ve been here alone all that time?”

She nods.

“Is there anything else you can tell us? Anything that might help?”

“I think they had a sorceress with them,” she says. “I could smell the magic in the air. Different. Dark.”

I remember thinking the same thing when I entered the village.

“Has that ever been known to happen before?” I ask. “A sorceress working with the shadowguard?”

She hesitates for a moment then shakes her head violently. “No. Never.”

Well, it’s not good. But it also explains how they got through the wards. Super. I lean across and grab the packet of biscuits from Josh. I need brain food for this.

“Does anybody have any more questions?” I ask.

Nobody says anything.

Josh is concentrating on eating as many biscuits as he can, as though he thinks they might run out.

He’s not wrong. I only packed enough food for a day—two at the most. And now there are more people. I glance sideways at Fury. We might have to send him out hunting. I don’t eat meat, but everybody else does. Which means Josh has to leave some biscuits for me.

“Let’s go take another look around the village and then get out of here for the night. It’s getting dark.”

The sun is already shrinking away from the clearing as it sets, the sky turning purple. I want to be away from this place of death before dark. I’m not surewherewe could sleep for the night that I would actually feelsafe,but I suppose anywhere would be better than right next to all the bodies.

I push myself up. “Okay, time to move, everyone. Up, up, up.” I make my voice chirpy, and Zayne gives me a black look. I don’t dochirpywell. But we’re all on our feet, and we head back toward the burned village.

My eyes are drawn to the one building left standing, and I walk slowly toward it. Stella nickers as we pass. She follows us. Maybe she’s looking for her stablemates, but the place is empty.