“How did you get here?” he asked.

“The Tyler building. There’s a Sentinel Stone in the basement. I was sent through that, alone.”

A Sentinel Stone left unattended? That could not stand. “We must go there and retrieve it, bring it to Dabyr where it can be guarded.”

“We will. Later. It’s been there a long time. It can wait there a while longer.”

“Are there more like you?” asked Logan.

“Maybe. If there are, they won’t know who they are. Their memories would have been stripped away to protect them from attack, the way mine were.”

“So you did allow your memories to be taken?”

“Yes. It was the only way to come here and fulfill my duty.”

“And what duty is that?”

“The same as yours,” she said. “Fighting the Synestryn. Protecting the humans.”

For the first time in a long time, Logan did not feel nearly so alone. He had Hope, which was more than he deserved.

He had to find a way to give his brothers the same gift she’d given him—the hope that his life would not always be one of pain and hunger. Surely, if there were others like her, there had to be some way to locate them.

“Is there any way we can identify these people?” he asked.

Hope shrugged. “I see auras—colors surrounding people that tell me about them. Maybe others like me see them, too.”

That explained the halos of color he’d seen while in her mind. “I don’t know how that’s going to help us find them.”

“I don’t, either. But I remember growing up with others like me—all different ages.”

“Maybe the Sentinel Stone in the Tyler building holds the key. We should go and investigate.”

“We will. Tomorrow. Tonight, there’s something I need to say.”

“What?”

“I love you, Logan.” She went up on tiptoe and kissed him, her lips soft and warm against his.

All thought of duty or responsibility fled, leaving Hope and her love for him burning bright at the center of his world. She was his refuge, his heart, and for as long as he held her in his arms, his life would be complete and perfect.