She whirled around as Connor rushed at her. Surprise registered on his face as Adne met his advance with a roundhouse that hit directly in the center of his chest. Connor went flying back.
Adne pivoted just in time to meet Ethan’s next attack. As he grabbed for her, she lifted onto her toes and pirouetted past him, landing a hard blow to his back with her elbow as she turned. Ethan grunted in pain but swung around to strike at Adne once more.
Blocking his first punch, Adne retaliated with a knee that only missed Ethan’s groin by an inch when he jumped back.
“Hey!” Ethan yelled at her in surprise.
Adne hit him in the jaw with enough force to send him reeling.
“Adne!” Connor was behind her. She wheeled on him.
He put his hands up, but Adne lunged and they both went tumbling along the floor. When they stopped rolling, Adne was on top of Connor. Her vision had become a sea of red. Her pulse was shrieking as blood sped through her veins, on fire. How dare they try to take away her power?
Kill him.
Adne didn’t remember drawing the silver spike, but her skein was suddenly in her hand and she was raising it up.
Make him bleed.
She brought the skein down.
Mikaela screamed and Adne froze.
The pointed tip of the skein stopped just short of Connor’s left eye.
“Adne, what are you doing?” Tess was running over to them.
Adne pushed herself up, backing away quickly.
His voice. She’d heard his voice. Bosque had been in her head.
Connor was propped up on his elbows. He was staring at Adne, his expression confused, wary, and a little angry.
“You all right?” Ethan offered Connor his hand, but Connor didn’t take it. He kept his eyes on Adne.
Tess reached them. She looked from Connor to Adne.
“What was that?” Tess asked. “What were you thinking?”
Adne couldn’t tell them. They’d take everything away from her. How could they not?
Shiloh and Mikaela crept up to stand behind Tess. The two newest members of the Haldis team were both watching Adne as if she were a venomous snake about to strike.
Drawing her second skein, Adne took both the spikes in one hand and then violently cast them aside. The metal clattered along the floor, ringing bright and sharp with each impact.
“I’m showing you how it’s done.”
Adne turned her back on them and walked from the room. She kept her back straight and her pace measured, so they wouldn’t know she was running away.
CONNOR COULDN’T help but glance over his shoulder as he walked with Ethan toward Haldis Tactical.
“I should stay here.”
“The hell you should.” Ethan cuffed Connor across the back of the head. “You need to get out and get your mind on something else. Seeing you glum is downright scary.”
“But Adne—” Connor rubbed the base of his skull. Ethan didn’t cuff gently.
“Adne is with Sabine,” Ethan cut him off. “You won’t do her any good by hovering over her every second.”
Connor wanted to disagree, but he couldn’t. If anything, his vigilance seemed to make Adne feel worse. She wouldn’t talk about why or how she’d ended up in the gardens outside Rowan Estate. Not to Connor. Not to anyone.
Tess tried to assure him that Adne was likely acting out after having repressed too much grief for too long, but Connor wasn’t convinced.
“You’re thinking about it,” Ethan said. “Just stop. Stop thinking about it all the time. You’re turning yourself into an old man.”
Connor grunted by way of answer. It was easy enough for Ethan to throw placations at him. Sabine, who by all accounts should be having the harder time adjusting—not that there was anything wrong with the girl, but she had been a wolf—had taken to life with the Searchers as if she’d been born into it.
“Tell me this, my mopey friend,” Ethan said, hefting his crossbow. “Does it or does it not feel good to have your weapons strapped on again?”
That drew a grin from Connor. “It does.”
Going to the armory had been oddly comforting. At last there had been something familiar, something that had once been routine to distract him from the unpredictable and largely unpleasant shape of his life of late.
“Then just focus on that.” Ethan nodded in approval. “We’re going to get the bad guys again ’cause that’s what we do.”
“That is what we do.” Connor felt a little bit of swagger infuse his gait. It felt good.
By the time they reached Tactical, Connor was practically his old self again.
“Ethan! Connor!” Tess waved to them. “Over here!”
Tess stood with Shiloh and Mikaela. The sight of the wallflowerish Weaver made Connor’s gut clench. He couldn’t miss the horror etched on the girl’s face after Adne’s attack. A look that said: I never want to become that. Mikaela’s expression had made Connor want to throttle her and shout to the world that Adne was nothing but good, that she hadn’t become anything other than the extraordinary woman she’d always been. But Connor couldn’t shout that or do anything. He didn’t know what to believe or feel anymore.
With Adne out of commission, Mikaela would weave the portal for their mission. Connor tossed an uneasy glance at Ethan. Timid as she was, Mikaela hardly seemed ready for the field. But Ethan just shrugged in reply. They hadn’t talked about what happened with Adne. Neither had Tess tried to push Connor into sharing his thoughts about the episode. All of Connor’s friends were treating him with kid gloves. He didn’t blame them.
Though he might be resentful of it, Connor knew Ethan’s nonchalance about the new Weaver wasn’t misplaced. If Tess or Anika had deemed Mikaela fit for the mission, then she was. Still, she wasn’t Adne and that was the long and short of it. Connor wanted Adne here, not Mikaela. But that wasn’t going to happen today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not for many tomorrows, and Connor needed to deal with it.
Taking a quick survey of the room, Connor noted that the Searchers had formed up according to faction. The Pyralis team appeared to be happily allowing Holt to lord over them. Eydis’s team was mostly new faces—the hideout in Mexico had been wiped out by the Keepers’ attack; Connor’s chest tightened at the memory of losing his friends. Pascal was still leading the Alps-based Tordis team, but he looked to be the only veteran surrounded by very young, newly minted warriors from the Academy.