Monroe nodded.

“Ethan,” Shay said. “Help me out here.”

“I know you’re the Scion and all, kid,” Ethan murmured. “But I think Monroe and the wolf girl are right. We should go in, and soon.”

“You’re the last person I expected to sign on to People for the Ethical Treatment of Guardians.” Connor laughed.

Ethan smiled at Connor before glancing at Ansel, who was still hunched over, pitiful, clenching and unclenching his fists. “I think I may have misjudged them.”

“And how do you propose we help them without losing everything?” Shay asked, rubbing his bruised jaw.

My heart skipped a beat when all the Searchers looked at me. But it was Adne who spoke.

“Me.”

“What?” Monroe broke out of his mournful reverie to glance at her, his eyes sharp and alarmed.

“Stealth extraction just before dawn. That still gives us a few hours to prepare. Take a small team. I’ll open an inside door.”

“No.” Monroe’s face paled.

“Every Weaver has to successfully create an inside door in order to take up a post,” she said. “I passed all the exams. You have my papers. I can do it.”

“What’s this?” Shay frowned.

Ethan smiled at Adne. “Clever girl.”

“No,” Monroe said again, taking a step toward his daughter. “Inside doors are for emergencies only. They aren’t meant to be used by a strike team.”

“What’s an inside door?” I asked.

Adne faced me, eyes bright. “That’s what we call a portal that is opened in a place that the Weaver hasn’t seen. You have to create the door based on your own mental image of the site you’ve targeted with only sketchy information to go on.”

She turned back to Monroe. “In this case it offers the perfect element of surprise, which we need.”

“It’s against protocol,” Monroe said. “I won’t allow it.”

“The protocol is moronic,” Adne said. “I can get a team in and out. It’s the only way.”

She glared at Monroe. “It would have saved Stuart and Kyle.”

Monroe’s jaw twitched, but he didn’t speak.

Connor put his hand on Adne’s shoulder. “That’s a big risk, kiddo. You sure about this?”

She nodded, but Monroe shook his head. “I forbid any further discussion on this matter. It’s out of the question. Protecting the Weaver is a team’s first priority.”

Adne’s laugh was haughty. “You were willing to throw everything away five seconds ago. This isn’t about protocol, it’s about me. Give it up, Monroe. I’m offering you the only feasible strategy and you know it.”

Monroestared at her, his eyes tight.

Her voice dropped low. “Please, I can do this. Let me help them.”

Ethan looked at Monroe. “She’s right. It’s the only way this might work. It will probably still be a total disaster.”

“It would have to be a very small team,” Connor said, his eyes on Adne.

“How small?” Shay frowned at him. “I mean not counting those of us here now.”

“You’re not going,” Connor said curtly. “You’re the Scion. If you die, we all die.”

Monroe expelled a long breath. “The Scion won’t go. Adne, you can open a door near Eden, but not inside.”

“But that might not be enough,” she countered.

“An inside door in the club would be suicide. The risk that we’d lose and both Weaver and portal would be compromised is far too great,” he said. “And we just learned about the location of this detention site. You’d be going in blind. I won’t risk it. Across the street from wherever he’s being held or in an alley. We’ll strike from there, make the extraction, and get out again.”

“Who’s going?” Shay asked. He didn’t look happy, but the outrage had fled his eyes.

“Only volunteers,” Monroe said. “This isn’t coming from the Arrow. It’s personal. We won’t be going back to the Academy; the strike will happen one hour before dawn. Whoever is coming, you should get some rest or whatever else you need to do before we reassemble then.”

Ethan cleared his throat. “I’ll go.”

I couldn’t stop my snort of disbelief.

He offered me a cold smile. “I may not like you, wolf, but I’m sorry I almost killed your brother. And those bastards killed mine. I’d like a crack at them . . . and to piss them off by snatching their prisoners.”

Monroe frowned at him, but Ethan shrugged. “Like you said, Monroe. This is personal.”

“All right, Ethan. You’ll go and I’ll go.”

“Two?” Shay gaped at him. “You’re only taking two?”

“No.” Monroe smiled at him and then looked at me. “We’ll be taking an alpha Guardian with us. That should be all the muscle we need for a stealth extraction.”

“Don’t take Calla,” Shay said. “They’ll want to kill her. It’s too dangerous.”

I jumped up, flashing my fangs at him. “Do you even remember who I am? I don’t need you to protect me!”

When he met my gaze, my outrage dissolved. His eyes were full of fear . . . and love. “I know.”

“We need her to help us find her pack,” Monroe said. “She has to go.”