I sat up with my back against the pillows. “What do you mean? We haven’t seen any sign of vampires except those working for the sheik – which I totally don’t get by the way. And the sheik’s witch only tried to grab me to get to the trolls.”

“Think about it, Sara. The young trolls were taken around the same time you were attacked at the rest stop, which means the sheik didn’t need you to find the trolls. So why did they come after you when they had what they wanted?”

The implication of his words hit me just as he spoke again. “You want to know why vampires would risk helping humans kidnap trolls? What if the vampires wanted something and they made an agreement with the sheik – a trade of some kind? You for the trolls.”

“No, the two vamps I ran into tried to kill me, not capture me.” I realized I’d said the wrong thing when his nostrils flared. “Remy and I took care of them,” I added quickly.

“You killed a vampire?” There was disbelief in his voice.

“With Remy’s help. He’s scary good.”

Nikolas looked like he was about to say something but changed his mind. “Even if you are right about the vampires, there is one thing you are overlooking. You have an incredible ability. If word of it gets out, the sheik will be coming after you and he won’t be the only one.”

“It won’t do him any good. I can’t heal humans,” I said, earning a dubious look. “My uncle is in a wheelchair. If I could heal humans, don’t you think he’d be the first one I’d heal?”

“But no one else would know that,” he pointed out. “Last night was just a taste of what could happen. They will keep coming and people will get hurt. And don’t forget, we still have a Master to worry about. He could come after you just to use you against Madeline.”

My stomach tightened. “Don’t hold back. I’m not quite paralyzed with fear yet.”

“You need to hear these things, Sara.”

“You’re trying to scare me, to get me to go with you,” I accused him.

His eyes held mine. “Yes, I am. But that doesn’t make them any less true.”

My heart sank because he was right. This was no longer about my freedom or what I wanted. If I stayed in New Hastings, I would put everyone I cared about in real danger. I might not be able to heal the next one who got hurt. What if they came after Nate? I could never forgive myself. I didn’t want to go to the Mohiri. But for now, it looked like my only option.

I looked away so he could not see the tears threatening again. “I – I need to tell Nate, to explain it to him. It’s going to be hard for him to understand all this.” I had no idea how I was going to even start telling Nate about everything. But I couldn’t just take off.

“We have some things to wrap up in Portland that will take a few days and it should give you the time you need with your uncle. I know this is hard for you but you are doing the right thing.” He got up and carried the chair back to the corner then opened the door. “I swear to you that I will keep you safe.”

He closed the door quietly behind him and I slid down to bury my face in the blankets. Part of me wanted to cry out my misery and another part wanted to scream about the unfairness of it all. I didn’t want to give up everything and everyone I knew and slink away into hiding. I wanted things to go back to the way they were.

Pushing back the blankets, I stood and looked around for my sneakers. I slipped them on and ran my fingers through my tangled hair, wondering where I’d lost my scrunchie last night. I twisted my hair into a loose knot until I could find a hair tie then opened the door. I needed to see Roland before I did anything else.

I knocked on the other three doors upstairs but Roland wasn’t in any of them. Voices carried up the stairs and I thought I heard his laugh. If he was well enough to be up, that was a good sign. I set my shoulders and descended the stairs.

The house had cleared out considerably since last night. In the living room I found Brendan, Judith, Roland, Peter, and Francis. It wasn’t hard to figure out they were waiting for me. When I appeared, all talking stopped and everyone looked at me. Francis’s glare told me he hadn’t forgiven me for getting Roland hurt, no matter what I had done after. The others’ expressions were a little harder to read and I stopped nervously in the doorway, not sure what to say to them.

“Good morning, Sara. How are you feeling?” Judith asked.

“Good… thanks.”

She jumped up and swept me into a tight hug. “Thank you,” she whispered thickly into my ear. Sniffling, she let me go and hurried into the kitchen. I stood there feeling even more self-conscious.

Roland patted the spot next to him. “Are you alright?”

“I think I’m supposed to ask you that.” I studied his face to see for myself that he was okay. He looked a little paler than usual but other than that no signs of illness.

His smile was tired but his blue eyes twinkled. “That was the secret you were going to tell us? You don’t like to do anything small do you?”

Brendan cleared his throat. “What you did last night was… incredible. We’ve never met anyone with your ability so you can imagine we’re all very curious. Can you tell us about it? Have you always been able to do that?”

“I found out I could heal animals when I was six.” I told them how I started out healing animals and learned later I could heal nonhumans. I tried to describe how it felt when I used the power but it was like them trying to tell me how it felt to shift. I explained that it always made me tired and how much depended on the extent of the healing. They had a lot of questions and I tried to answer them all.