Celeste
Not just the children. Not just the children at all.
Alec's face went the color of old parchment.
Darien's mouth tightened. His hand stayed on my shoulder, and I felt the small flare of his Alpha press into the air around us before he banked it.
"Get him. Alive." His voice had dropped into a register I had not heard from him before. "I want to know what he saw. I want to know who sent him. Go."
The runner was gone at a sprint.
"Darien." Alec's voice was tight. "A Dothian. Here. In Specter."
"I heard they had been on the moving and searching …” Darien's green eyes cut to mine, then back to Alec. "Not here, Alec. Not this conversation. Not now."
Alec looked at me.
I was already watching him.
Not now. That meant later. That meant a room with a door.
The children's voices c
