The girl with the cat eyes staggers away from the dead man as his now visible body drops behind her. She falls to her knees, sinking her clawed hands into the dirt. A pair of handcuffs is fastened tight around her wrists. "You-you could've shot me," she breathes, her yellow eyes finding mine.

"But I didn't," I reassure. I walk to the man I shot and eyeball him. He wears a plain black jumpsuit. No insignia or anything. Their scuffled boot prints also appear, followed by snapped branches, and a few tire tracks leading deeper into the forest.

"You were hiding all that?" Diana asks. "Who are you?"

Her cat eyes blink and she crosses her arms over her chest. "What do you care?"

"You work for Singh?"

"As if," she scoffs.

I put an arm in front of her, in case she feels like attacking Miss Night. "She's a friend," I assure.

"What's your friend's name?"

I glance at the girl's cat eyes.

She gives a rough sigh, "I go by Bast."

"Little on the nose, don't you think?" Tae asks.

Bast sneers. "Call me Nobody, then."

"Bast is fine," Tae assures. She studies Bast's cat eyes. "You're the one that helped Mason before. In that facility."

Her arms uncross and she glances from me back to Tae. "Suppose so."

Tae shakes her head. "I have so many questions. Why did they experiment on you? I thought they only cared about humans that came from inhuman blood. You're a Protector. Why'd they take you?"

Bast's eyes glint in the sunlight. Her hands ball into fists at her sides and she lifts her lip, exposing her sharp teeth.

"Maybe they needed a control group," I reason.

"Or her family lied about her being a Protector," Miss Night offers, watching Bast. "She should've been at the Academy by now."

"Not for another year," Bast snaps. "I'm not a deserter."

"You should be," Diana says, her eyes slipping from the girl to the tire tracks leading deeper into the forest.

"Miss Night, you should take Bast back to the car."

Diana's eyes snap to mine and she takes a staggering step backwards. "Pardon?"

"She shouldn't be coming into this with us. But Tae isn't going to go back with Tomas so close and I won't until I know everyone is safe."

"And you think I will?"

"I think you're a professor. Someone who teaches us how to survive. You've taught me and Tae what we need to know. Bast still has things she needs to learn. So, you're going to take her back to that car and we're going to go get our people back. Am I clear?"

Diana stares at me, her fingers going to the locket around her throat. "I-."

"None of you are going to ask me what I want?" Bast recrosses her arms. Her dark hair is slowly unraveling from a braid and she shakes her head to free it faster. "I'll go with you."

"Singh is in there," I warn her. "And lots of guards. It'll be dangerous. You didn't even want to go into the lab last time."

Bast's eyes get a faraway look in them. She turns her face towards the sun, slowly sinking beyond the tree line. "That was when I thought I had something to return to. I'd rather help this time."

I start to shake my head. "You're a kid. This isn't something you should have to face."

"I'm already facing it," she snarls. "Look, I can list off the reasons I want to do this; helping people, getting revenge on Singh, whatever. But the heart of the matter is, there's three of you going against a compound of Singh's army. You need all the help you can get or none of you are walking out alive. Especially if you send the only real adult back to the car!"

"I'm a real adult," Tae protests.

"So am I," I argue.

Bast throws her hands in the air. "Whatever!"

"I agree with her," Diana says.

"Me too," Tae whispers, like she wants to cut out her own tongue.

I glance at the three of them, feeling ganged up on. The little boy that lives in my chest, the one still listening to his mother's screams, wants nothing more than to banish the child back to the car. That part of me doesn't want her setting foot anywhere near the compound we're approaching. But my eyes dance over the scar closing over on her temple, baby hairs starting to grow back where they shaved. I see the dead man she keeps her back too, gagging on his stench every few seconds. She's already in this. And she is right. Even one more person able to fight Singh could mean the difference between life and death.

"Okay," I rasp, slipping my gun back into my waistband. "Let's move."