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He frowned. “Ethan is dead, and I thought I would feel nothing, but—”

“But?”

“I hated him, but he loved me.”

“He tortured you. You have nothing to be guilty about.”

“I don’t feel guilty. I just wish it could have been different between us.”

“Do you believe he was telling the truth about your mother?”

Caleb had been avoiding thinking about that one. It was inconceivable that his mother had been alive all these years. In some ways, it was yet another betrayal. One more person who had walked away from him.

“I don’t know,” he said. “There was no reason for him to lie. And does it matter? If she is alive, she obviously wants nothing to do with me.” He could hear the bitterness in his own voice.

“Perhaps that’s not her fault,” Regan said gently. “You heard what Kael said—she’d been a prisoner for so long. Can you even begin to imagine what that would be like, what she went through? Gina told me they almost broke Raven, and they only had her for seven years.”

Caleb closed his eyes. She was right—he couldn’t imagine it. He did know how his father’s treatment of him had twisted his whole character. What would it be like to suffer torture year after year, knowing that there might never be an end to it? Could he blame her?

“We’ll find her,” Regan said. “If she’s alive, then we’ll find her. Kael will search to the ends of the earth.”

“My father told me she was broken,” Caleb said. He shook his head. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be found.”

Was she even still alive? Or had she gone away on her own and died somewhere alone? He hoped she’d found peace wherever she was.

Regan leaned down and kissed him briefly. “Then once we know she is safe, she can be alone again.”

They were silent for a few minutes. Caleb rolled onto his back and stared at the tree canopy above them and beyond it to the star strewn sky. Then he remembered something.

“By the way,” he said, “you ever do that magic shit on me again, and I’ll—”

She grinned. “You’ll what?”

“I’ll be really pissed off.”

“I definitely won’t do it then.” She pulled away from him and sat up. She still wore his white silk shirt, but the buttons were gone, and it hung open at the front. She glanced down as she caught him staring, then back at his face and smiled, a slow, seductive smile that caused the blood to thicken in his veins.

“We should get back,” she murmured.

He didn’t want to go back, but he knew she was right. There was the pack to sort out and—

“Oh, God,” he said. “Your sister, Catrin. We left her with all those wolves.”

“She’ll be okay,” Regan replied. “She could do with a little excitement in her life.”

“They’ve probably eaten her.”

“Don’t be silly—she’s a witch. But we should still get back.”

There had been no sound from the clearing for a while, but at that moment, a howl went up from the wolves. Caleb scrambled to his feet.

“What the hell’s that?”

“I think maybe the cavalry has arrived.”

“The cavalry?”

“The Council. I told Catrin to tell them what was going on. That was when I thought she might need the help, before I realized she would completely go against my wishes and bring you along.”

Caleb remembered Kael’s words about how the wolves would pay for what had happened to his sister, and a sense of urgency filled him. No way was the Council touching his people. They would have to go through Caleb first.

Reaching down a hand to Regan, he pulled her to her feet. “Come on. Let’s go.”