My tense shoulders dropped an inch, and I cracked the door. Devon stood outside with Isaac, and I widened the opening to let them in. Crossing my arms, I prepared to be chastised. Instead, Dev caught me in a soft hug.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “I was so worried.”
Sudden tears clogged the back of my throat, so I had to force the words out with a wobbly voice. “I’m—I’m fine.”
Another knock, softer this time, pulled our attention to the door. “Soph?”
Zara opened the door for Adam. He slid inside, filling the room to the brim.
“Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the stockade?” I asked.
“I switched shifts so I could come tell you congratulations,” he said with a sly smile. “You’ve officially been outed as a Hunter lover.”
My very soul sagged to the floor. “Not all of them. Just…him.”
“Lucas Scott,”Adam said with a small laugh. “No wonder you wouldn’t tell me who it was.”
Isaac, who’d remained quiet in the corner, eyed me with barely disguised revulsion. “I’ve seen him kill people for an audience.”
I sank to the bed. “He isn’t what you think he is.”
Isaac puffed out a breath of disbelief.
Devon shushed him, then turned back to me. “How long have you been his contact?”
“I’ve been meeting him weekly since March.”
“Ah.” Zara took a seat beside me. “That makes a lot of sense.”
I bumped her shoulder with mine. “I knew you were curious. I couldn’t tell anyone. It made everything hard. But every week I expected him to be a cold-blooded Hunter, and every week, he just…wasn’t.”
“Where have you been, Soph?” Adam asked, more serious now. “You’ve been gone for a week. The quarantine house… We thought you’d been captured.”
I stared at my fidgeting hands in my lap and shoved the words through my mouth. “I was. Jack Miller tied me to his bed.”
Silence fell, and one by one, they averted their pained gazes, all except Adam, whose compassion shone through those brown eyes. He opened his mouth.
“I don’t want to discuss it,” I said before he could speak. “Ever. Not ever. Do you all understand me?”
Each of them nodded.
“And Scott,” Devon said. “He…saved you?”
“Yes. He came, and he killed them all.” I paused, remembering a crucial detail. “Except Paul Kingston. I killed him. I killed him because I found out he killed Tekqua.”
Adam’s mouth went slack. “Tekqua’sdead? I thought she was in the House.”
I shook my head. “Lucas told me they killed her before he could get her there.”
Hand to his chest, Adam fell back against the wall, his gaze distant. The others closed their eyes, grief washing over us all, but none of them had been as close to Tekqua as me and Adam.
“I wanted to tell you sooner,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head, eyes bright. A long moment of silence passed before Zara asked, “Will you tell us about him? Help us understand.”
Her face was earnest and open, and I glanced at the rest of them, each with similar expressions, even Isaac, skeptical as he was.
So I told them.
