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Rodriguez’s eyes widened. “How do you know that?”

“I just do,” I hedged. “You can tell the others when you wake them up—after I’ve left. I need a head start.” Then I looked at him, thinking more carefully. He was already looking nervously back at my tent where Blake was still sleeping. I groaned, knowing exactly what he’d do as soon as I was out of sight. “I’m sorry, Rodriguez. But I have to do this.”

He didn’t look at me. “I know. I understand.”

“No,” I said flatly. “Not just that. This.”

And then I decked him.

Chapter 61

BLAKE

I woke to someone shaking my leg. With a growl, I reached for the knife I slept with under my bedroll. Then I recognized the face peering into the tent. “Rodriguez? What the fuck?” I was still groggy, so it took me a second to realize Pendragon wasn’t in the tent with me. Once I did, I was fully awake. I stared at the open tent flap. Rodriguez had a hand to his head, holding something in place. It looked like a cold compress. “What happened to your head?”

“Funny you should ask that.” He glanced down at Pendragon’s empty spot, and his face paled. “Get up. We need to talk.”

“Where is she?” I snarled.

“Just get up, Blake.”

I threw back the blankets as memory crashed into place. I remembered Pendragon leaving the tent in the night. I thought she’d just been going to the bathroom. Now I realized something, and my heart kicked into high gear. I didn’t think she had come back. I yanked on trousers and was pulling a shirt over my head as I emerged into the camp. Everyone was getting up.

Visha had already made a fire and was preparing a pot of kava. She glanced at me. “Rodriguez seems to have drunk a little too much last night. I found him sprawled out here on the ground.”

“I don’t have a fucking hangover,” Rodriguez snapped, still holding the compress to his head. “Medra hit me.”

“Now, why would she do something like that?” I sauntered over to him, my voice dangerously low.

He flinched as I stuck my face close to his. “She didn’t want me to wake you up.”

I don’t know what I’d been expecting him to say, but it wasn’t that. “What the fuck does that mean?” I demanded. “Where is she?”

“Look, I just came to, all right? I woke you as soon as I was conscious.”

He was obviously hoping I wasn’t going to hit him again. I bared my fangs. “Where is she? Talk. Now.”

“She’s gone,” Rodriguez said, his voice hardly a whisper. “She went to find House Mortis.”

The camp went very still. “Why would she do that? Is she insane?” It was Zaira. She’d been wearing a sleeping cap over her long black braids. Now I saw her drop it to the ground as if she’d forgotten she’d been holding it.

“Mortis left a note.” Rodriguez handed it to me.

I scanned it. Visha was already at my side. When I was through, she grabbed it and read it aloud.

“You’re telling me Medra Pendragon was stupid enough to walk right into a Mortis trap?” Sankara rumbled.

“Where’s Hawl?” It was Kazmyn.

Visha was scanning the camp. “Shit. Who found the note?”

“Hawl found the note,” Rodriguez said weakly. “They were already gone by the time I found it. I woke up Pendragon, and then …”

There was quiet as everyone put the pieces together. “Maybe Pendragon caught up with the Bearkin,” Kazmyn suggested.

“I doubt it. More likely Mortis had people waiting nearby,” Sankara said slowly. “Waiting for whoever was—” he glanced at me “—brave enough to leave the camp,” he finished tactfully.

I took a deep breath. This was not good.