Damn. I guess Kaja never got my message.

‘Let me go on shore first,’ Rage said, letting go of the selkie.

Before I could answer, the guard on the dock spoke.

“Selkie attack! Harvest girls’ dorm!”

Wha…? I stared at the guard and then grinned. I mean I felt bad that Kaja had pinned an attack on the selkies, what with our new alliance, but it had worked. All twenty guards pulled their swords and started running toward the dorms.

Yes!

We crept closer to the shore, all of us crawling up the beach, flat and low.

For one hot second, I thought my plan had worked perfectly, but then two of the guards paused and stayed back. One of them scanned the water and then pointed into the darkness.

“There’s a boat out there.”

What? Looking over my shoulder, I saw the moonlight glistening off the metal speedboat. Crap!

“Halt!” The guard on the dock drew his sword, scanning the beach. “Who’s out th—?”

Several things happened at once.

Rage sprang from the water, running up the beach, and shouted, “Stand down!”

The selkie in front of me threw a small blade at the guard standing at the top of the trail leading to the dorms. The knife hit with a small thunk, lodging right in the guard’s neck. With a strangled, wet cry, the shifter toppled forward, rolling down the hill, landing in the water with a splash.

I glanced up as the second guard slumped to his knees and then fell to the side. There, on a rock behind where the guard had been, stood my bestie, holding a mallet in her hands.

Looking down at the guard, she grimaced. “Sorry, dude.”

Rage pulled to a stop in front of Kaja and the fallen guard and grinned. “Well done.”

“Kaja,” I whisper-shouted, emotion swelling in my chest.

She jerked her head up and smiled as I strode out of the water.

“Halle-frickin-leujah,” she said, dropping her arm to her side as she stomped past Rage and across the beach to meet me. “Pretty sure Nell and Rue thought I’d lost my mind.”

The selkies followed me out of the water. Rage returned to them and shook their hands in thanks. I rushed to Kaja, folding her into a tight hug, not caring that I was getting her wet.

“The alpha king is legit pissed with you,” she muttered into my hair. “Good thing you have that shield bond going for you or the orders would be shoot to kill.”

“He’s such a douchebag,” I replied. Pulling back, I studied my friend. “I missed you.”

“Girl, same,” she said with a chuckle. “This place is no fun without you. I’m so glad you’re safe.”

Rage straightened, and he clapped Kaja on the shoulder before sliding his arm around my waist. “Thanks for coming to our rescue.”

She nodded. “You’re—” Her eyes widened. “Get down!”

Still holding the big mallet, she raised her hand as if to throw it, her gaze fixed on—shoot!

“No!” I cried, reaching for her wrist.

“They’re with us,” Rage said, indicating Gray and Harp.

Kaja froze, and the large mallet slipped from her grip. Her gaze bounced from me to Rage and back. “What the hell is happening?”

The two selkies had hung back, and I glanced at them as one relaxed his hold on the handle of a dagger still in its sheath.

“Uh … so this is Harp and Gray.” I faced the selkies. “Our allies.”

Kaja nearly choked on her spit but said nothing. She was probably in too much shock.

“Are you returning to King Ozark now?” Rage asked them.

“We’ve been commanded to stay and help you,” Gray replied as he made his way to the dead guard. Then, the selkie warrior pulled his blade free and reach into—ummm, was that a fanny pack around his waist?

Sure enough, the selkie pulled a cloth from the sleek pack at his waist and wiped down his blade before sheathing it.

Kaja and I shared a look, both suppressing a grin about the fanny pack.

“You’ll need our help if the wolf king uses his alpha power,” Harp added.

Rage cursed under his breath, and my stomach sank with the selkie’s reminder. As pack alpha, Declan could command his pack like a vampire could compel a blood slave. If a Midnight wolf didn’t follow Declan’s orders, they’d risk banishment, or worse.

‘Can your uncle force you to follow his orders?’ I asked Rage.

Rage shook his head. ‘When I was younger, yes. He tried at the games. Didn’t work.’

Score.

We made our way up the path toward campus, diverging from the main path as we neared the top. I quietly recounted the past few days of events to Kaja in backward order, starting with the tenuous truce we had with the selkie king and ending with seeing Honor in the underworld.

Rage then took us on a secret path he and his brothers had used when they’d wanted to sneak away from the castle and go off-island—this one had no guards. As we approached the stone edifice, my gut started to churn.

‘Do you have a plan to save Justice and Noble, or are we charging in, weapons blazing?’ I asked Rage.

He frowned. ‘I’d hoped we’d have more than just Kaja and a pair of selkies.’

“Where are your sisters?” I asked her. “Are they okay?”

She rolled her eyes. “Rue, Nell, Fiona, and Mele pretended to be attacked to distract the guards. Rue wanted it to look authentic. She’s going to need a healing elixir before she walks again, but if we swing by the infirmary, we can grab the others.”

‘I’m sure there’ll be a bottle of mage wine in the infirmary, too. You can work your magic…’ Rage said, squeezing my hand. ‘That might have to wait, though. We need to rescue Justice and Noble first.’

His words twisted my insides. I almost asked if his brother was okay but stopped myself. Rage wouldn’t have prioritized Justice and Noble without a reason. A very good reason. At this point, I didn’t want to know the details of their torture. Not until I could do something about it.

“What about Surlama?” I asked Kaja. “Have you seen her around?”

“I don’t know anything about Surlama.” Kaja swallowed, and her gaze darted to Rage. “But the rumor is the king’s trying to produce an alpha heir so he can leave Rage’s mom and kill … you know.” She dipped her head to Rage. “We haven’t seen Declan on campus since the games.”

Rage growled low in his throat as we passed through an outcrop of thick trees. “Let him try.”

Fur rose on the back of his neck, and I reached out and stroked him, trying to calm his wolf. I needed levelheaded human Rage right now, not his instinctual wolf. Although that part of him would come in handy later.

We reached the castle, halfway between the entrance we’d used when I first arrived and the back entrance I knew led to the infirmary. The solid stone wall had been repaired since the selkie attack, and I watched as Rage took several steps to the left, trailing his hands over the stones.

‘What are you doing?’ I asked. ‘Is there a secret entrance?’ I joked. Speaking to Rage’s mind was like second nature now.

Rage turned and grinned at me. ‘If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret.’

Then, he pushed on a rock, and the stones slid away silently, revealing a secret passageway, and my jaw dropped.