Neither of us had time to react to Selene’s strange, cryptic announcement before Hecate and Iris took Keira by the arms and led her to the cell. She was a lot less feisty than when she first entered the cave—in fact, she was downright docile. Without even moving a finger, Selene had placated her.

Meanwhile, Hecate had only to make eye contact with me to freeze me in place.

Damn it. I had to learn not to look at her.

Once they deposited Keira in the cell, the witches hurried off behind Selene, like they had some talking to do. The moment Hecate was out of sight, the spell broke, and I was free to move.

The first thing I did was throw myself at Keira.

“Oh, my God,” she gasped before she grabbed me in a hug. “I didn’t even notice you in here. How is that possible?” She looked around us, at the clear, not-there walls. “From the outside, I didn’t see anything at all.”

“You were busy. And the walls are magical.” I held her at arm’s length. “I can’t believe it’s you. I was so afraid for you!”

“I was for you!” She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a bracelet. My bracelet. “I found this. You lost it in the woods. You don’t know how many terrible things I imagined, and it would all have been my fault.”

I added the bracelet to the others, stacked halfway up my forearm. “God, I didn’t even notice I lost it. It’s been sort of a crazy time here.”

“Your hair!” She touched my head. “How long have you been inside?”

“Yeah. I’m in-between colors. And growing it out.” I’d gone back to my natural, near-black color.

“I’ll say.” So how long?” She asked again.

“I have no idea, but it can’t be more than a day.”

“Are they taking care of you?” she asked, holding my face in her hands. “Have they hurt you? Tried to do anything to your mind?”

“The opposite—well, actually, one of them ended a panic attack I was having. But that was a good thing.” I placed my hands over hers. “Keira, what is happening here? Why don’t you seem the least bit surprised over any of this?”

She let out a long breath. “We need to sit down.”

“I don’t think I’m going to like this,” I muttered as I sat on the floor.

“Oh, I know you’re not going to,” she said with one of her trademark wry grins. I had missed that grin.

Funny how having her back with me, even in a cave, in a cell with invisible walls powered by frigging coven of witches, made me feel better. I was less lost thanks to her sitting in front of me, with her hands in mine, with the two of us leaning close to each other so we might have a little bit of privacy.

Not that it mattered. They could probably hear us or sense our thoughts or whatever.

“I didn’t want to bring you into any of this,” she whispered, squeezing my hands. “I’m so sorry. When I got your email—and it was too late by then, I should have tried to stay in contact with you, but I wasn’t sure how to do it safely—I completely freaked out. I didn’t know what might happen to you.”

“Yeah and look where I turned up.”

She shook her head, eyes wide and sadder than I had seen in a long time. “I am so, so sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get pulled in.”

“Pulled into what, though? You know these people?” I nodded in the direction the witches had disappeared in.

“Did it seem like I knew them?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. “They overtook me in the woods, while I was looking for you.”

“Oh, no.”

“It’s all right.” She flashed a grin. “Hey, I found you. That’s what matters.”

“Why did you fall off the grid the way you did?” I asked. “Where have you been? What have you been doing, how have you been living? I have a million questions, in case you couldn’t tell.”

“I can’t blame you,” she replied with a sad smile. “I made such a mistake, not at least keeping you in the loop. I guess I hoped you would be happy for me and move on. I don’t know.” She looked away from me for the first time, her eyes moving to the side when she did.

I had seen that expression way too many times, ever since we were kids. Whenever she did or said something she felt guilty about, something she knew was stupid in hindsight.

“Why did you do that, though? What did you find out here?”

“Tamhas. His family.” She still wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“What are they? A cult? You make it sound like a weird secret-type thing.”

She frowned. “Not a cult. Don’t make it out to be like that.”

“I’m not. You are. Just tell me who they are, and it won’t seem so flipping weird that you won’t come out and say it.”

“You’re going to have a tough time with it. I mean it sounds absolutely impossible.”

I rolled my eyes. “Once again. The impossible has found me. My possible/impossible line has blurred a lot today.”

“I guess so. I felt the same way when I first saw them.”

I was either going to explode or smack her. “Saw who, already?”

“Ladies.” Selene’s voice echoed through the cave and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. My hands clenched tighter than ever over Keira’s.

We stood, and I couldn’t help feeling guilty again. Like she had caught us at something. There was a motherly feeling about her—that had to be it. Anybody could see she was in charge of the witches, and that she kept them in line pretty efficiently.

To keep a bunch of powerful witches in line. How much more powerful did she have to be? It boggled the mind.

She was smiling warmly as she approached, walking across the big, open room. It wasn’t my imagination: the torches burned brighter with her there.

Iris, Hecate, Callie, and Electra followed her.

None of them looked at me—no, they were focused on Keira. What were they thinking about her? I wanted to stand in front of her, to protect her, but she didn’t need my protection. She was just as fierce as them, even if she couldn’t create magical fire or make cups of water appear out of thin air.

Didn’t they remind me of her when I first met them in the woods?

“You came here to find your friend, did you not?” Selene asked, coming to a stop just on the other side of the invisible wall.

“Yes, I did. Why did you take her captive? She did nothing to you.”

“She trespassed on the land we’ve shared with the clan for hundreds of years.” Selene’s gaze landed on me for just a second. “We mean no harm to the human, but she now knows entirely too much.”

“She knows nothing.”

“You expect us to believe you told her nothing?” Iris asked. She sounded ready to start a fight, as always.

“Iris, please.” Selene didn’t have to look her way to make the witch back down—though she wasn’t happy to do it, judging from the scowl on her otherwise beautiful face.

I felt like the ugly friend, standing in a room full of supermodels.

“She knows no more than what you’ve shared with her,” Keira insisted. “In fact, there is not much I could tell her, since there is so little I’m clear on. It’s all a mystery to me right now.”

Selene frowned. “They did not tell you who you are? I had expected them to do so.”

“I know who I am—I think,” she whispered, glancing at me from the corner of her eye. “I would like to keep my friend removed from this, if possible. Can we discuss it elsewhere?”

“Don’t even think about it.” I turned to her. “I’m in this now. You can’t keep me in the dark.”

“Em. You can still get out of this.”

“She cannot,” Selene disagreed. “She knows far too much, even without you sharing information with her. She has seen where we live, how we live. The very fact that a human knows we exist…”

“Wait a second, please.” I was having a hard time keeping up. “Why are you calling me a human, like I’m different from her?” I jerked a thumb toward Keira.

“Because she is not human,” Selene replied, like it made all the sense in the world. Like there was nothing crazy going on.

I looked to Keira for clarification, but she only shrugged.

“I didn’t know, either. It’s not like I was keeping a secret from you.”

She was right, after all. I was having a tough time believing her.

“There is more to it than you merely being one of us,” Selene told her, looking and sounding grave. “Much more.”

It was Keira’s turn to be surprised.

At least I wasn’t alone.