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"Cleared out fast, evidently," Balthazar reht "Like rats frori"

"If they did get a warning ere on to them," Eli put in, "that would mean they hauled ass outta here less than five minutes after our lead came in"

"Didn’t take off in a panic," Torin said He tipped his head back, long braids at his teainst his sharp cheekbones as he read the energy in the air "They had ti they needed When they left - by the fade of it,- they left on their own terms"

Jax twirled one of his hira-shuriken between ni with lethal precision under the ht "Doesn’t matter why or when they left Only ht back at square one," said Webb, the warrior Lucan had put in charge of Mira’s squad after the incident with Rooster not even a week ago From the sober look on the Breed male’s face, it was a mantle he accepted out of duty alone, not personal ambition "Can’t believe she hasn’t kicked those rebels’ asses single-handed by now and co Shit, the way Mira goes into co Valkyrie, man Doesn’t matter she’s not Breed; it would take an army of humans to knock her down and keep her there And I, for one, refuse to believe she’s not still breathing out there somewhere"

For what hadn’t been the first ti down a similar path What had they done to Mira to keep her captive for so ht back? And what of Bowht into La Notte, a public place, and she not find soinning to take root in Nathan’s mind

He didn’t like the taste of it Didn’t want to think that Mira led with the rebels and their criminal acts Or worsecould she possibly have allowed herself to be charmed by Bowman?

The last was alhable, it was so incomprehensible There had only ever been one one A handful of days in the company of human rebels - a class of individuals she openly despised - would not suddenly turn her away from the Order and her kin

And yet

It was that last disturbing possibility - the least logical of thenore

There was so he hadn’t yet connected Solossed over and disency of the bunker’s search

"Proble who had asked it His boots were already chewing up earth beneath hi and purposeful as he stalked back into the dalooain, less rushed this tiaze over every rustic table, chair, and cot, into every corner and cranny of the place And he found nothing

Not until he stepped into the last rooeway

So crunched under his boot heel A slass

He paused, lifted his foot to pick up the sleek, silvery shard Holding the tiny bit of shattered aze and scanned every inch of the lightless room, his Breed eyes keen in the dark

He cocked his head, narrowing in on an object lying in the center of the tumbled bedsheets Even noas tempted to dismiss it Just a broken mirror, tossed in haste onto the unmade bed as the rebels raced to vacate the premises

Except they hadn’t left in haste

Nathan had suspected as much earlier, when it was obvious they’d had ti and foodstuffs Then Torin had confiry of the place left in the wake of the evacuation

Bowman and his rebels had left with Mira on their own terms, not in a panic They’d had tilass that must have littered the floor, yet they hadn’t bothered to re with it

And now Nathan’s Hunter instincts prickled with cold realization

The otten

Placed there deliberately

He walked over, picked it up Stared at the intricately crafted design inlaid onto the polished silver back of the piece The insignia was fa time - not since the near annihilation of the faed

"Archer," Nathan murmured under his breath Then a curse that was equal parts incredulity and outrage "Bowman"

How could it be possible?

There was only one person he kneho ht possess the ability to be running under the radar of the Order, right under their damn noses

But that person was dead

Nathan had personally witnessed the explosion that killed the warrior who’d been like a brother to hiht sky one inside - mere seconds before Nathan and Mira would have followed hi with him

But what Nathan hadn’t seen, he realized nohat no one had ever sought to find in the ash and rubble left behind - was Kellan’s presuhtened around the delicatethe Archer fanawed at hiically sort the pieces of a disturbing puzzle he was just seeing for the first ti everyone he knew, living in Boston like sohost? If so, how had he ended up in this place, with a new name and a band of hu Nathan’s lethal logic had trained hi to experience any sense of unfairness when it was gone, but now the unfaut, bitter as acid

And what about Mira?

As badly as he wanted to deny Kellan’s deception, the prospect of Mira being pulled into the equationinside hio still and calculating, preparing to sever all emotional ties in the execution of his ht in his fist Either Kellan or Mira had left it, knowing - perhaps hoping - it would be discovered by sonize it Someone from the Order Maybe even Nathan himself

If it had been Mira, perhaps it was a cry for help, some kind of clue to aid in her rescue Except Nathan knew the Breedmate warrior too well to believe that Her love for Kellan Archer had endured eight years of absence If she were reunited with hi hi her away from his side

As for Kellan, Nathan knew hiht he did Still, Nathan was certain the memento was intended to be found, not as a reckless taunt meant to incite the Order’s full wrath

No, Nathan understood now, it had been left behind as an invitation

A clue ht person directly to where Kellan would be found

It was a token of surrender