Page 112 of Ruthless Ends

My spine straightens at the familiar voice, and I whip around.

A single figure stands in the darkness. She’s the clearest thing in this space, in full color the way she’d normally be, no shadows clinging to her form.

“Calla?” I take a step back and shake my head, immediately realizing it’s not her. Not really. If she’s on this side, then she’s no better than V.

Her hand shoots out to grab my wrist before I can turn away, her skin hot against mine, the only warm thing in this godawful place. And there’s something…wrongin the touch. Something that feels like it doesn’t belong here.

I look at her,reallylook at her.

“Oh my God, it’s really you. It’s me,” she insists, tears filling her eyes. She yanks my hand to her chest and holds it there. Her heart beats beneath my palm. When I try to pull away, she tightens her grip, her eyes wide, pleading for me to understand.

What had Connor said? Shadow selves don’t have heartbeats.

I search her face again as if the truth will be written there, but I learned the hard way that I can’t read her anymore.

But if she’s telling the truth…

“How long have you been on this side?” I ask.

Instead of looking hopeful at the prospect of me believing her, Calla’s face falls. “A few weeks.”

Weeks?

Weeks ago means while I was at the wolf camp—maybe by the time I’d reached Auclair—but not when I was at the compound.

So the things she did, the choices she made, those were all her.

Unconsciously, I take a step away from her, and she flinches.

“Why?” I ask tonelessly. “What happened?”

Weeks.My brain snags on that word again. If she’s been trapped here for that long…

No. I can’t afford that. I have to get back. I have to.

“Westcott wouldn’t tell me anything after you left.”

My eyes snap to her face at her calling himWestcott. She’d never shied away from calling him Dad before.

“And I was worried,” she continues, wringing her hands in front of her. “I just wanted to know you were okay. Talk to you. Try to make things right. I hated the way we left things. And I felt like if I had more time to explain…” She clears her throat. “Anyway. No one would tell me anything. I could tell he was getting annoyed that I wouldn’t stop asking. So I started looking for answers myself. But then I’d heard rumors about you being at Auclair. He told me to drop it. And when I didn’t, when he found out I’d been trying to reach you…” Her jaw ticks as she squints at the darkness around us.

When he found out I’d been trying to reach you.The note. The nail.

So he must know about the book. About our plans.

“He said he’ll bring me back when I’m no longer a liability,” she adds with a flick of her wrist as if this is nothing.

I look around us again, at the darkness, the emptiness. Weeks.Weeksshe’s been here alone? A hint of my anger toward her burns determinedly in the pit of my stomach, but a second emotion I don’t want to acknowledge grows beside it. “He…put you here?”

“He said he can’t afford disloyalty, not right now. That I was becoming more trouble than I was useful.”

“And your shadow self?”

She scoffs at that. “Jumped right at the opportunity if it meant she could take my place.”

My heart comes to a complete stop in my chest. “She’s there at the compound with Westcott? Your shadow self?”

Calla nods, chewing on her lip.

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