Page 101 of Rangers Unexpected Return

“This is the second floor,” Trigger said.

“There’s a fire escape outside,” Blaze answered.

Mace looked through the window.

“Movement in the alley.”

The Rangers rushed downstairs.

I stayed with Rylie while Sheriff Tate called his deputies.

Max remained at the window, growling into the darkness.

Five minutes later, Mace returned.

“Nothing,” he said. “Gate is still locked. No one on the fire escape.”

“Then what opened the window?” I asked.

He showed me a thin piece of metal.

“Someone slid this beneath the frame from outside and forced the lock.”

“How did they reach it?”

“The fire escape,” he said, shaking his head.

The Keeper hadn’t entered the tavern.

He had only wanted Max to alert us.

A distraction.

I turned toward Rylie.

Will had taken possession of the camp photograph.

Then I saw another picture resting on the floor under the hall window.

A new photograph.

Rylie asleep in her own bed.

Trigger lay beside her.

The image had been taken through their bedroom window.

Long before we knew the Keeper had chosen her.

Beneath it, he had written another message.

YOU CAN’T WATCH HER FOREVER.

9

MACE

The photograph hadn’t appeared by magic.