"What do you mean I can't see her?" Alex glared. "Zed, I swear to God . . . I want to talk to my sister. Move out of the way."

I peered out of the blinds cautiously, watching Zed try and fail to calm my brother down outside Thea's hospital room. No one had yet told him that we suspected Thea to be his soulfinder. If he walked in here and saw her in this state, he'd kill someone, I was sure of it. But I knew we couldn't keep it from him for much longer, it wasn't fair. If Thea had been in Edinburgh, then she'd been tracking us for well over three months now, which meant she'd spent a fair amount of time at the mercy of a criminal Savant family, something I could empathise with.

Still, Xav and I hadn't left her side since we'd brought her to the hospital, and she seemed comforted enough by my continued presence in her mind. Though I lacked social skills, she had enough access to my own mind to understand I meant her no harm, and after what she'd been though, I imagined that alone must be a welcome relief.

I'd asked her every question Victor had put forward, and she'd answered as honestly as she could, fighting through the muddle of her inaccurate thoughts and memories to try and find something real. Afterwards, Victor had looked pleased enough, leaving me with Thea, Zed and Xav while he attempted to work out our next step.

"You reckon we should let him in now?" Xav grimaced at me, pointing outside.

I pursed my lips. "He's going to go mad. Look at her, Xavier. If he doesn't try to find the man who did this to her, it will be a miracle."

He hesitated, scanning Thea's injuries carefully. "What if you warned her that Alex was here?" he asked me quietly. "Maybe she can convince him that she needs him here, not chasing bad guys."

I stared at him for a second. "You're a romantic at heart, aren't you?"

He faked a blush. "I try my best, Miss Peterson."

Shooting him a withering look, I turned back to Thea. Thea, can you hear me?

She shifted slightly with a wince, surfacing from the light sleep she'd slipped into. Grace? Is something wrong?

No, I assured her quickly. But . . . well, my friends and I think you might have been right about your soulfinder being here. We'd like to introduce you to him.

Shock resonated from every corner of her mind, and it took a moment or two for her to collect herself. I didn't blame her. I knew how she felt. Not yet, she muttered, almost pleadingly. Please, don't let him see me until I can wake up enough to see him too.

My lips pursed in disappointment, but I could understand where she was coming from. Of course not. I'll keep him away.

He'll listen to you? I thought I heard a spike of jealousy in her voice.

I felt my eyes roll. Yes. He's my brother.

Oh. It satisfied her curiosity, and I was mildly surprised to notice she liked the idea of me being related to her soulfinder. She trusted me, much more than most people did after knowing me for all of an hour.

"So?" Xav asked when I looked back up at him. Shaking my head, I pushed myself out of the seat and slipped to the door, opening it just wide enough to step outside.

"Grace," Alex sighed in relief, ignoring Zed the moment he caught sight of me. Zed looked just as relieved himself, hovering between pity and irritation as he stepped back to guard the door. "Grace, what's going on? I tell you that you can spend time with your soulfinder and now you're both ganging up on me?"

I scowled at him, jabbing Zed in the side to stop him snapping. "For your information, I am not spending time with Zed simply because you said I could, I . . . didn't really get much of a say in the matter." I shot Zed an irritable look, but he only smirked back at me. "And secondly . . . I can't tell you what's going on."

Alex blinked. "Why not?"

"She asked me not to."

"Who's she?" he snorted, lifting an eyebrow. "Seriously, Gracie, you're freaking me out."

I hesitated, glancing sideways at Zed for support. He just shrugged silently. "If I tell you, do you promise to trust me?" I sighed, fixing my eyes on my brother's.

"I promise," he nodded without a seconds hesitation.

Zed scoffed quietly beside me. "You're going to regret agreeing to that so quickly, mate."

"You are not helping," I scowled at him. "Could you go and find a coffee machine or something?"

I really annoy you don't I? he asked mentally with a smirk.

"Out of my sight Zed, seriously," I groaned, ignoring Alex's surprised look as Zed laughed lightly, squeezing my hand once before turning away and striding down the corridor. Distracted, I watched him go for a moment, wondering vaguely if I was doing the right thing by letting him and the Benedicts into our lives.

"Grace!" Alex exclaimed, snapping his fingers in front of my face. "I know you're all loved up at the moment, but can you focus please?"

I shot him a withering look. "I am not loved up," I grumbled, pushing him roughly toward the seats on the other side of the corridor. "Alex, there's a lot for me to tell you, and some of it I'm not even aware of yet. Victor seems to have found Matthews' mole over here, and from what I can tell, the Benedicts have had dealings with them before. They wouldn't tell me exactly what, not until they've made sure we're still safe here."

My brother scowled, obviously annoyed that we'd kept him out of the loop for this long. "How is it exactly you found the mole already?"

I shifted uncomfortably, glancing sideways at the door to Thea's hospital room. "That's the hard part," I warned him quietly. "Cassandra found a girl at the stables. She . . . she's in pretty bad shape at the moment, but one of Zed's brothers, Xavier, healed her as best as he could and the doctors here seem to think she'll wake up sometime soon. But she was already starting to come around while she was at the stables, enough that one of us could communicate with her internally."

He straightened in shock, shifting into a defensive stance. "She's a Savant?"

Gulping, I nodded once, not quite meeting his gaze. "Yes. She was abducted a few months back by the family Matthews is using over here. They seemed to think that she could help them locate us."

"Why would they think that?"

Taking a sharp, deep breath, I figured it was best to get it over with as quickly as possible. "She's a soulseeker, Alex." His face dropped. "She was born three days after we were, and I'm almost ninety per cent sure she's the girl you've been seeing in your dreams lately. She seems pretty confident you're her soulfinder."

I didn't like the look of the rush of emotions racing across Alex's face. Vaguely remembering that lack of thought that Zed and I had experienced the first time we met each other, I made to get to my feet to stand between Alex and Thea's door, but he beat me to it, bolting forward before I could even blink and shouldering the door open.

"Alex!" I hissed, grinding my teeth together. Without pausing to think, I scrambled to my feet, forcing past the barriers to his mind like they were made of water. A flash of pain rushed through the back of my head, but I persevered and suddenly, time around us seemed to stop and the world became blurry and out of focus. Ignoring the pain, I reached for the right mental patterns in Alex's mind and forced him backward, watching him slowly reverse his movements like I'd pressed rewind on his life.

The moment he was back stood in front of his chair, I leapt up in front of him. "Sit back down," I frowned at him as I released my grip.

"Stop it, Grace," he warned me in a snarl. "Get out of my way."

I could feel him reaching for my ability, trying to find a way to break down my defences, but I reinforced them as much as I could. "She doesn't want you to see her yet, Alex," I snapped back at him, a dull pain beginning to grow behind my eyes. "Alex, stop it! Get out of my head!"

"What's going on?" Zed's concerned voice came as he strode toward us carrying two cups of coffee.

"Is this why he's here?" Alex glared at me furiously. "You think because you had to stay away from him for so long, I shouldn't be allowed near her?"

"No!" I exclaimed in surprise as Zed's face dropped. "Alex, I'd never do that to you, you know that! But think about it, the only way to communicate with her is telepathically. She can't even open her eyes!"

"I don't care!" he shouted back at me, and a few nurses down the corridor started frowning down toward us.

"Well she does!" I insisted. "Is it so hard to understand that she might not want you to see her like that, especially when she can't even open her eyes to see you?"

Alex hesitated, still scowling. Beside me, Zed seemed torn between getting between us or leaving it for us to sort out ourselves. "Take a walk," he finally sighed quietly at him, handing me a coffee and pointing down the hall. "Coffee's that way."

"You think I should just leave her?" he scoffed sourly at him. "You realise how ironic this all is, coming from you two, right?"

I flinched, but Zed barely acknowledged him. "Where do you think she's going to go, Alex?" he asked casually. "The moment she wakes up, she's going to want you here. She came looking for you, she's here to help you. Go and get a coffee, get some sleep, whatever you have to do. As soon as she wakes up, we'll tell you."

He stared at the two of us for another second, obviously deeply torn. "We won't leave her alone, Alex," I assured him. "She'll be fine, I promise."

Glowering slightly, he locked his jaw. "I want to know the moment she wakes up." His eyes flicked toward Zed. "And you had better watch out for her," he added, jabbing a finger irritably in my direction.

"Always," he frowned, nodding seriously. Shooting me one last pained look, Alex turned on his heel and walked away, his shoulders hunched. "He isn't going to take this well, Grace." I flicked my eyes toward him with pursed lips. Now that it was just me and Zed, I could see what Alex meant. This was horribly ironic. Now sure that fate was playing a never-ending, cruel trick on my brother and I, I sighed heavily and slumped into the chair I'd just vacated. "Are you alright?"

"No."

Zed hesitated, then moved to sit beside me slowly. "He'll be fine the moment Thea wakes up, I'm sure of it."

I glanced at him, my lips twitching as I realised he'd already searched the future as much as he could. "That's not what I'm worried about," I admitted quietly. He shuffled, but didn't say anything. "Tell me you're sure all of this is going to work?"

"We're never entirely sure, Grace," he muttered in concern. I frowned at my feet, trying desperately not to overthink everything again. As though he knew what was coming, Zed shifted a little closer and sighed heavily. "Look, I know you're thinking that all of this – finding the mole and making the US safe for you – I know you think it's all too good to be true."

I risked a glance sideways at him, saying nothing. He was right, of course. Ever since the Benedicts had visited us, I'd been trying not to get my hopes up. I'd been down that road before, believed people when they said they could help me, only to be let down in the end. I couldn't afford mistakes like that, not where Zed was concerned.

But his expression had set. "Realising I couldn't have you unless I was willing to give up my entire family was the hardest thing I've ever had to do," he muttered and I flinched away from him. "It took me ages to get it straight in my head, and I started to resent my family for being one of my only weaknesses." My eyes flicked toward him worriedly. Honestly, I knew the feeling. If it wasn't for Alex and the Benedicts, I'd have long since latched my hand through Zed's and run until I thought it was safe. "And now, Victor's telling me that in a week, maybe less, I can have it all, and after everything he told me about Matthews, I almost can't believe it could be that easy."

"Easy?" I found myself scoffing at him darkly. "If he's using another Savant family to find us, then as far as they're concerned, it's either us or them because Matthews doesn't take failure well. They won't take this easy."

Zed nodded seriously. "We know that. We're used to it, Grace. It isn't that that worries me."

I blinked. "What?"

He pursed his lips, his eyes locked on mine. "I'm worried that you're never going to believe it's over. That no matter how safe we can make you, or no matter how far out of Matthews' reach you are, you'll always be expecting the worst, never wanting anyone close to you in case they get hurt. I'm worried that, even when I finally have you in my arms, you'll always want to be a hundred miles away."

My heart had stopped, my mouth had run dry, and my hands had tightened so hard around the edges of my chair I couldn't feel my fingertips. I hadn't expected him to be so honest about my obvious flaws, though quite frankly, I hadn't ever considered my lack of social skills to be a problem for my soulfinder. Didn't he realise that he was the only exception to every rule I'd ever kept to when I met new people?

I eyed the serious, determined expression on his face, and I knew he wasn't just going to let me talk my way out of all of this again. His brother had given him enough for him to hope that we were safe, and he wasn't going to let me walk away. "You've heard what my father is capable of," I told him, shuddering as he wrapped a hand around mine possessively. "Do you really think he won't find us?"

Zed sighed, tracing circles with his thumb on the back of my hand. "This is bigger than us now, Grace," he reminded me. "The entire Savant Net is dedicating as much of its resources to keeping Matthews in the UK as it can. He already has influence in Europe, but we know that he has only just reached out over here. Victor has already set up safety protocols, and if he's confident that taking this one family down will eliminate Matthews' hold over here, then I trust him."

I hesitated. "And you realise that this is all likely to go horribly wrong?"

"Ever the optimist," he sighed with a wry, sadden smile. "We aren't fighting Matthews here, Grace. We fighting an enemy we're familiar with, and one we've already had dealings with. We know what we're getting into. Trust me. Please."

His eyes had locked onto mine with that intense gaze he got when the conversation turned serious, the one that froze me on the spot and made me absolutely sure that I was safe with him. Mouth too dry to speak, I nodded slowly, holding my breath as he leaned closer. But before he could kiss me, for the first time since our first meeting outside the police station, someone cleared their throat pointedly.

I straightened awkwardly, peering around Zed to see Xav leaning around the doorway. "She's mumbling again," he told me. "She's asking for you."

Grimacing once in Zed's direction, I pushed myself to my feet to move back to Thea's side. If Thea wanted me here, then I'd stay. Alex had spent hours talking Zed down over the past month or so, and Zed had had Yves keep an annoyingly close eye on me. Now it was our turn to repay at least one favour. "Zed," I started slowly, hesitating in the doorway.

He scowled at me, already knowing I was about to ask him to leave. "He told me to look out for you, Grace."

"And I'm fine here," I persisted. "Victor has already doubled security around here, and I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself. I just don't want him to do something stupid."

He hesitated, glancing back at Xav pleadingly. His brother sighed heavily. "I'll go," he groaned. "I've done everything I can here anyway." Putting his face straight for a moment, he grimaced at me and patted my shoulder. "I'll make sure he behaves himself, Gracie. Zed, let me know when she wakes up and I'll get him back here as fast as I can."

"Thanks, Xav," Zed nodded, standing up to follow me into Thea's room.

"You don't need to watch over me twenty four hours a day, Zed," I sighed, aware from the glint in his eyes that he knew I wanted him here just as much as he wanted to stay. "I can take care of myself, I've been doing it long enough."

"Exactly," he shrugged, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing my forehead softly. "You've been doing it for far too long. Now it's my turn to look after you." I pulled a face, ignoring the nervous butterflies in my stomach and moving to Thea's side.

Zed and I spent hours by Thea's side, and after a few minutes convincing her that Zed was trustworthy – and complaining at her that he wouldn't stop moaning that I was trying to have two conversations, one of which he couldn't hear – Thea eventually let Zed into her thoughts. That meant that I had to shut off some parts of my own mind, the parts I didn't want Zed to know Thea had already had access to, but luckily, Thea didn't mention it.

It took almost twenty-four hours for Thea to wake up. In that time, the Benedicts had drifted in and out of the room, and I had answered as many questions as I could to Trace and Victor, convinced Yves to cover for me with Louisa and the others, and navigated a severely disturbing meeting with Zed's parents. They were the only Benedicts I had been worried about meeting. Suspicious brothers, I could handle. But over-caring and protective parents weren't something I had ever had to worry about.

"You're falling asleep," Zed chuckled quietly at me. I blinked a few more times than necessary to wake myself up slightly as he slumped back into the chair beside me, pulling me back into his side as he passed me another cup of coffee. "Sorry about this, but you're going to want to drink that."

I yawned, frowning at him. "Why?"

"My parents are on their way up."

His expression shifted when he noticed me go completely still, staring at him with a blank face. "They won't be so bad," Zed rushed, tightening his arms around me. "I've told them to go easy on you, but they are a bit . . ."

"Like parents," I finished for him quietly. "It's fine, Zed. Honest." He didn't look reassured.

By the time the Benedicts had made it up to the hospital room, I'd scolded the inside of my mouth gulping down the hot coffee and told Zed a thousand times or more than I was okay. He refused to let up any of the hold he had on me, despite the fact that it was the first time I'd ever wanted him to let go. Being caught by his parents this close to their son didn't seem like a good first impression to me, especially since my insistence that we kept away from each other this last month hadn't exactly been easy on the Benedicts.

But the Benedicts barely blinked. Instead, the moment they walked into the room, the only thing they were concerned about was making sure everyone was okay. "Oh, we just got back!" Karla Benedict breathed, hauling Zed to his feet to wrap him in a tight hug. "When Victor told us you were at the hospital Zed, I thought you'd done something silly again!"

Zed shifted, and I was thoroughly relieved he looked as awkward as I felt. "I'm fine, Mom," he insisted. "But Alex made Grace promise to stay . . ."

Karla's attention was immediately on me. While her husband, Saul, was a strong, tall man with work worn hands and a calm, neutral expression, Karla was quite small, with dark hair and large dark eyes that shone with emotion. Just meeting her gaze made me slightly dizzy, as though the rush of emotion was enough to send me nauseous.

"Mom," Zed warned quietly, shuffling in front of me a fraction.

Karla ignored him, stepping around him to take my hand and pull me to my feet with surprising strength. I took a breath to complain, but without a single word, she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. Inexplicable fear made me shiver, and I felt my eyes widen in surprise, my heart clenching tightly.

"Karla, honey," Saul winced through his teeth, dropping a hand onto her shoulder.

"It's wonderful to finally meet you," Karla beamed at me as she pulled back, ignoring Saul and barely registering Zed's scowl. "We've heard so much about you. Such an awful childhood, I'm so sorry-"

"Mom!" Zed complained. My stomach was threatening to bring my coffee back up again, and my skin was shivering furiously.

"I'm sorry, Zed, you know I can't help it," she frowned, waving him away. "The poor girl has seen so much trouble . . ."

"Yeah well, not anymore," he scowled, slipping his hand into mine tightly. I didn't say anything, subconsciously shifting closer to him and swallowing as much fear as I could. It troubled me that of all of the things that got to me most it was the obvious close bond that the Benedicts shared.

"Of course not," Saul agreed, his expression still neutral. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Grace. I'd say welcome to the family . . ." He shot his wife an exasperated look, but I just grimaced tightly at the two of them, unsure of what I was supposed to say. Talking with Zed's brothers was much easier than this. As though he understood what I was feeling, Saul hurriedly changed the subject, his eyes flicking sideways to his son. "Victor didn't have time to tell us much. Is everyone okay?"

Zed nodded, his stance relaxing a fraction. When mine didn't, he began tracing his thumb over the back of my hand again. "The woman Grace and Alex lives with, Cassandra, found Thea behind the hay bales at the stables. Xav's already healed most of the superficial stuff, we're just waiting for her to come around now."

"Do we know how she found us yet?" Saul frowned, his eyes lingering suspiciously over Thea.

Feeling oddly protective, I felt my back straighten out a fraction. "She's a soulseeker," I told him, finally finding my voice. Saul blinked at me in shock, and Karla gave a small gasp of surprise, her eyes shining. "We think she's Alex's soulfinder, but we can't be sure until she wakes up. It sounds like she managed to track the two of us while we were in Edinburgh, but Matthews must have realised what she was doing and decided to use her against us."

"Vick's pretty sure the news of her escape or her finding Alex hasn't reached Matthews, and that it can't, but he's double-checking," Zed continued.

"Where did she escape from?" Karla breathed, her eyes wide in concern as she scanned Thea's face.

Zed's expression darkened. "Vegas."

His parents started, staring at him with a mixture of horror and amazement. My eyebrows tightened again, and I wanted so badly to demand answers then and there. But at that moment, Thea spluttered beside me.

My hand clenched around Zed's tightly, refusing to let go as I shifted closer to Thea's bed, my lips pursed and my mind reeling. "Thea?" I called carefully. In the background, Saul muttered something to Karla about finding a nurse, turning and slipping out of the room. "Thea, can you hear me?"

I watched as her delicate eyelids fluttered, revealing sharp, crystal grey eyes. "G-Grace?" she stammered, her voice hoarse and sore. "W-Where am I?"

Taking a breath, I flicked my eyes back to Zed for support. He grimaced and dipped his phone into his pocket, holding it out for me to take. "I think you should call Alex now."