“You think it’s good that someone got tortured?” Fitz snapped.

All the color drained from Keefe’s face. “Wait . . . what?”

“You don’t know?” Sophie asked.

“No—I swear. Was it Dex? Please tell me it wasn’t Dex. Or Biana? Or Linh?”

His voice cracked with each name.

“They’re all fine,” Sophie said. “It was—”

“We’re not telling you anything until we search your memories,” Fitz interrupted. “We need to make sure you weren’t involved.”

Keefe rolled his eyes. “Would I be here if I was?”

“Yeah, if this is a trap,” Fitz said.

“Right, I forgot.” Keefe turned to shout at the empty beach. “They’re on to us, guys. Go ahead and attack.”

Silence—aside from barking selkies.

“Oh, that’s right—there’s no one here except me! And do you have any idea how hard it was to get away?”

“How’d you do it?” Sophie asked.

“Don’t let him sidetrack you,” Fitz jumped in. “We need to stick to the plan. Like Tam said—”

“Ugh, I should’ve known Bangs Boy was part of this,” Keefe interrupted. “Let me guess, he’s still bitter because I wouldn’t let him take that stupid reading?”

“Uh, have you seen what you’re wearing?” Fitz asked.

Keefe gripped his sleeves, trying to cover the Neverseen symbols. “It’s. A. Costume.”

“Prove it,” Fitz said.

“And what happens if I say no? Are you planning to go all Cognate power on me?”

“Just give us five minutes,” Sophie begged. “Five minutes to make sure we know what’s really going on. If you’d seen what they did to Wylie . . .”

Keefe fell back a step. “They hurt Wylie?”

“ ‘Hurt’ is putting it nicely,” Fitz said. “They drugged him, dragged him out of his room, and burned him over and over.”

Gulls circled high above as Keefe watched the sky. “He’ll be okay, right?”

“Physic is working on him now,” Sophie whispered. “She can heal all of his wounds. Not so sure about the mental trauma.”

Keefe looked green as he turned to pace. “Did they let him go? Or did he get away?”

“He got away,” Sophie said.

“Wow—someone’s going to be in big trouble.”

“That’s what you care about?” Fitz asked, shaking sludge off his shoes as he stalked closer.

“Hey—I have to think about what it’s going to be like when I go back there. You would too, if you were in my position.”

“I would never be in your position,” Fitz argued.

“Yeah, you’re better at taking the easy way.”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing. It’s . . . whatever.” Keefe’s eyes made their way back to the sky. “Did Wylie see who grabbed him?”

“Sorta,” Sophie said. “He felt an invisible hand tear off his pendant, and he got trapped in a force field, so that has to be Alvar and Ruy. But he also suspected there were two others.”

“I’m assuming you thought one of them was me?”

“Can you blame us?” Fitz asked.

“You? No.” Keefe’s eyes focused on Sophie. “But I told you, I won’t cross the hard lines.”

“You never said what the lines are, though,” she whispered. “And I know how desperate you are to make this work.”

“So you thought . . .” He choked back the rest of the words.

“If you’d known they were going after Wylie,” Fitz said, his voice barely audible over the rolling waves, “would you have stopped them?”

“I would’ve told you guys, so the Black Swan could handle it. Just like I did with Grady and Edaline.”

“But what if we couldn’t get to him?” Fitz pressed. “Would you have blown your cover?”

Keefe hesitated—only a second, but it was enough.

“You don’t get it,” he argued. “These are people who torture someone just because they want something! People who infect an entire species with a disease just to get their way! They have a network that stretches way farther than you could ever imagine. I’ve only seen a tiny piece of it, and it’s seriously terrifying. I can’t fight it without making some hard calls!”

“Well, I hope it’s worth it,” Fitz snapped.

“So do I.” Keefe’s shoulders slumped with the confession, like his body wanted to retreat.

Salty wind whipped around them, and Sophie choked down the selkie stink. “Do you have any idea who the other two kidnappers would’ve been? Wylie thought one was a Guster. And he heard them say the other was keeping the path open.”

Keefe brushed sand out of his hair. “The Guster would be Trix. So that probably means the other was Umber, since I got the impression that she and Trix work together a lot. Those aren’t their real names. I met some of the members a few days ago, but no one would tell me who they really are—and they all kept their hoods up so I couldn’t see them.”

“So they still don’t trust you,” Sophie noted.

“Not completely. But Fintan doesn’t trust anyone completely. Everyone only gets to know a tiny piece of his plans, and he only gives each person a single task for every mission. That way, everyone’s expendable.”

“That’s pretty terrifying,” Sophie mumbled, “considering what he did to your mom.”

Keefe shrugged.

“Are they making any progress on their promise to rescue her?” she asked.

“Don’t know, don’t care. I assumed they were lying when they offered that. Look at how they’ve abandoned Gethen. He’s been a prisoner for how many months now? And do you see them trying to get him back?”

“They tried at first,” Sophie reminded him. “Until Squall froze off his fingernails. And now he’s in Lumenaria, which is apparently impossible to break into.”

“Maybe, but I’ve never once heard them talk about getting him back. And when I asked Alvar about it, he said, ‘Gethen is where he belongs.’ ”