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“Of course!” Maria chirped, already giving orders as the delicate lock gave under my ministrations. Gloria’s right arm dropped back to her side as the lioness continued, and I moved to the left manacle. “You’ll get free, but still pretend to be trapped. When the wolves come back to check on their friends, you shift and make them regret even messing with a real Alpha.”

Gloria’s breath hitched and her reply was instantaneous, “No.”

“But…” Maria sounded off-kilter. “Why not?”

“Or we could get Bianca to undo all the locks, so you two can shift and take on the wolves?” Gloria sounded frazzled.

“That’s not going to work,” Maria replied, and my heart skipped as the bobby pin successfully caught. “These doors are electronically controlled and on timers. See how your cell is already closed? They’d left it open earlier.”

Good, I was almost done.

“I’m not going to be able to keep this up much longer anyway. Bianca’s going to collapse in about twenty seconds,” Maria argued. “We can’t rely on her to get us out.”

“Besides, that’s a stupid plan,” Ada snapped shortly. “Maria and I can’t fight that many on our own. It’ll take you three seconds to put them in line. They’re instinctually wired to submit to—or at least fear—the highest-ranking wolf around, and that isyou.”

“We need to think of something else!”

As the second lock opened, I realized this was the first time I’d ever heard Gloria truly panicked. How strange.

Her weird fear of Damen held nothing to this.

My knees buckled and I fell, my teeth chattering and ears bursting with a pop.

“Bianca!” Gloria was kneeling in front of me, and her fingers dug roughly into my shoulders as she forced me onto my back.

At least, I think that’s what happened. There was no way to tell which way was up and which was down anymore. But I wasn’t breathing in dirt, so that was a big giveaway.

“Bianca, can you get up again? Do you think you can connect with Mu?” Her voice prodded at me, desperate, yet firm, but I couldn’t move. “No.” Her fingers lightly traced over my face. “That was far beyond what was safe,” she was muttering to herself—but probably also Ada and Maria. “We need a necromancer.”

Why would we need a necromancer?

I couldn’t even think to remember why that’d be important. But her statement did remind me of my own necromancer. Julian’s gentle, blue eyes flashed against my closed eyelids.

Guilt twisted at me, and my empty stomach churned painfully. Why did it feel like even though we’d bonded, there was something missing between us? I hadn’t thought to question it until Miles, but there was a distinct difference in Julian’s and my relationship compared to mine and the witch’s.

Julian and I should probably spend more time together once Titus and I made it back home.

But first, a nap.

Sticky hair pressed against my cheek, and yet another stone was digging into my shoulder. Why would I sleep here? This wasn’t comfortable at all.

A voice whispered in the back of my head again. I couldn’t go to sleep now. Dying was a very real possibility.

I needed a necromancer.

There was nothing else I could do. I had no reserves left to fight. There was no way even Mu could help now.

Why did the thought of that make me sad?

“Gloria,” Maria was saying, “we’re going to have to go with my plan. They’ll probably be back soon. You should wait—”

“We can’t do that.” The wolf’s refusal rang with desperation.

I turned my face toward her. Her pale wrists were thick with blood, an injury from her imprisonment no doubt, and her golden eyes flashed with barely restrained panic. Her focus remained on Maria and Ada. “Please don’t ask,” she said.

Things were beginning to make sense once more. But it wouldn’t matter; it was taking me too long to recover.

Icouldn’tbe the one to help us right now. For once in my life, I was going to have to trust a wolf. And I didn’t have the best history with wolves.