In the living room, a quilting frame that had been used maybe half a dozen times had been set up and the underlying quilt base stretched across it. But Kishar and Andrea paid it no attention. They both sat on the couch, holding hands and talking softly, their heads close together.

Zoë paused at the entrance, watching them. Although they only held hands, she had the uncomfortable feeling of having walked in on something very intimate. She almost backed away when Andrea looked up and said, “Zoë. Do you remember somebody named Ainsel?”

Her bones felt like they’d turned to ice. “I do. Do… do you?”

Tartly, Andrea said, “Well, we were certainly planning on adopting somebody and Ainsel’s report card is in my purse.”

“I remember a little girl with silver hair,” said Kishar, in almost a whisper.

“A junior in high school, according to the paperwork,” said Andrea firmly. “Trouble. But… but not a mistake.” She bit her lip. “That’s not the kind of mistake I make.”

“She’s real,” blurted Zoë. “She’s my best friend. You’re her foster moms.”

The two women looked at each other again, before Kishar said, “That’s useful, Zoë. Thank you.”

“Do you want me to tell you more? I can tell you more. Maybe it would help you remember?”

“Mmm,” said Andrea. “I don’t think it would. We need to cross-reference the discrepancies in our own memories. Something’s wrong, but we’re figuring it out together. Just like we’ve done before.”

“How?”

“By trusting each other,” said Kishar. “If neither of us are lying, we’ll figure things out.”

Zoë thought carefully for a moment before asking, “Do you remember Lucien?”

Andrea gave her an impatient glance. “Yes, of course. That was last night.”

“Well… how did you end up meeting him?” Zoë could hear her mother humming in the kitchen as she cleaned up.

Andrea frowned. “We were looking for somebody.”

“For you, Zoë. You wanted to tell us something you didn’t feel you could tell Sarah,” said Kishar.

“No…” said Andrea. “I was angry at somebody for doing something stupid, but it wasn’t Zoë. It was… her, I suppose. And then the unicorn boy messed with my head somehow.” She scowled down at a crumpled paper in her free hand. “I don’t like this, Kishar.”

“We were looking for Zoë,” said Kishar firmly. “But I want to back up to what we’re both certain of. Zoë, if you don’t mind letting us talk a bit more?”

Hastily, Zoë said, “Sure. But, oh… one more thing? I really need to know,” she pleaded as Kishar looked annoyed. “What do you think about Tyler?”

“A nice young man,” said Kishar, but in a neutral voice. “Better than many of my students, I suppose.”

“He is nice,” agreed Andrea. “Trustworthy enough, for little things.” Her gaze sharpened. “Has he done something to you?”

“How… how can you ask that if you think he’s nice?” Zoë felt thoroughly confused by the two women. It was like Tyler’s mind control hadn’t quite worked with their approach to life, unlike Sarah.

“Because nice young men are still young men, dear, and they’re prone to hurting others,” said Andrea dryly. “Tyler is a charming kid but that doesn’t mean squat.”

“I want to believe in him,” said Kishar, moving one shoulder in a shrug. “But I’ve had a lot of experience with his type. If he bothers you, let us know, all right?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Zoë’s fingernails bit into her palms and for a moment her general feeling of well-being dissolved in the salt swell of tears. She fought them back with pragmatism. No matter what Kishar said, they couldn’t have done anything. Even if they were suspicious now, Tyler could control them with a word. She had to keep them safe for Ainsel.

“Zoë?” said Kishar, alarm growing on her face. She half-stood up, pulling away from Andrea. “What did he do?”

Shaking her head, Zoë found a smile. “Nothing. I mean, nothing serious. He, uh… he broke my desk killing a spider. But he said he’d replace it.”

“A spider?” demanded Andrea incredulously.

Zoë only shrugged. “Ask my mom. I’m going for a walk, all right? You two were talking and you should get back to it.”

Once again, Kishar looked annoyed, even as Andrea pulled her back down to the couch. “You—no, fine, fine. Go for your walk. Take a phone and a flashlight and be careful of the wildlife.”

Bemused at how Kishar seemed to have slotted her into Ainsel’s place as foster daughter, Zoë nodded and backed out of the room. She returned to her bedroom, obediently gathered up her phone and a small flashlight even though it wasn’t even full twilight, added in her camera bag out of habit, and went out the sliding door.

She walked through damp grass, avoiding the wreckage of her desk at first. Then she turned and walked back to the mess, and moved broken pressed wood aside until she found her computer. The case had busted open and the motherboard cracked. But the hard drive looked intact. She reached down and pulled it free, then went back to her room and put it on a bookshelf. She didn’t have to do what anybody expected anymore, and that meant she could still care about her old life, even if she couldn’t get it back again.

After that, she headed to the woods, following a vague plan. People didn’t just stop existing, even if their foster moms stopped remembering them. Ainsel was out there somewhere, even if she was in another world. All Zoë had to do was find her and rescue her from Remy. And if Sarah Hogan could rescue her daughter with some pepper spray, Zoë could rescue her friend with some vampire power inside her.

She couldn’t help at first heading for the part of the woods where Lucien had hidden himself, and where so much had gone wrong that morning. But as she drew closer, an unpleasant prickling danced over her skin and she remembered the nightmare she’d had before she’d woken into something even worse. Lucien’s secret self, and Tyler’s letter…

“Hey,” said a soft voice she recognized. “What are you doing out here?”

Zoë jolted from the daze she’d fallen into and realized Danui stood in the shadow of a tree, his hands in his pockets. She scowled furiously and she backed up. “Stay away from me!”

Danui held up his hands. “Whoa, whoa, I’m not going to hurt you.” His own face twisted. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to. But I don’t. This isn’t your fault.”

“Then what do you want? Why are you here?” she demanded, coming to a halt and deciding to stand her ground.

He shrugged. “Tyler doesn’t need me right now. I went for a run. Why are you out here? I’d really rather not be asked to hunt you down again.”

Zoë hesitated. “You don’t like Tyler, right?”

Danui laughed hollowly. “It’s not about liking him or disliking him.”

“Some of your people seem to like him,” she pointed out. “That one girl.”

“Jae,” he said. “She had a crush on him before we knew what he was. And she’s not a pack master. About half of them are just fine following him.”

“But you’re not. I know you’re not.”

“I’m failing them,” he muttered, and rubbed his hand across his face. “I’m failing everybody and I can’t stop it.”

“You can,” urged Zoë, and as he shook his head, she added, “You can help me stop it, anyhow. Tell me what’s happening with Lucien.”

“The unicorn? We have him locked down until Tyler’s pet mage finishes making the collar that will force him to transform back to his natural form.”

“And then what?”

Danui looked down. “And then we kill him and take his horn. I don’t know what happens after that.”

“Oh God,” muttered Zoë. “Danui, can you just… get me to him? I can do the heavy lifting of rescuing him.”

The werewolf looked at her for a long moment. At last he said, “I could. But I think Tyler would enjoy that. So I won’t.”

“Enjoy what? Me being there?” It was Zoë’s turn to laugh hollowly. “He already got to me, you know.”

“Yes. I know. But I’m not going to hand you to him again, not when I still have a choice. There’s no way you can rescue that unicorn. Not without real help, from somebody he can’t just control.” For a moment, Danui’s eyes glinted in the gathering dark.

Zoë pressed her lips together. It had been a vain, opportunistic hope anyhow—but Danui was right. She needed more than just him. “Fine. Well, supposedly I’m one-third Night Master now. Does that mean you have to do what I say, too?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I doubt it. You don’t feel like he does. You feel… soft. Like somebody I should have protected. But I might do it anyhow, if I felt like it.”

“Hah!” Zoë drew herself up to her full height. “Danui, help me find a fray.”

“Why?” he asked suspiciously.

“Because I’m going to jump through and rescue Ainsel, of course. You could come. Maybe Remy will be there too.”

“He will be,” said Danui slowly, as if fascinated by the idea. “But that’s a crazy plan.”

“It gets me further away from Tyler, doesn’t it?” Zoë offered.

For the first time since he’d introduced himself, she saw Danui smile. “True. All right. Let’s go.”