A voice I recognize responds, “Her mind will sharpen, but her body will still experience side effects. If you’d like, we can try again later in the day?”

“I’d rather not.” Cestra taps fingers on the table.

My head tips back against the chair, too heavy. My eyes follow Erebus, who has just walked into my field of vision. He settles against the back wall, face unreadable. The Mageguard general is in his typical black long coat. His black-and-silver aether staff leans against the wall beside him. The sight of him loosens a memory. Something happened with him… something bad.

Something that made me angry.

“Where am I?” I croak.

“A secure facility,” Erebus answers. When he looks at me from this close, the bright sparks burn my cheeks. When I turn away to escape his gaze, I notice a camera mounted in the wall over his head, a winking red light beside the iris.

“Facility?” I shake my head. “No… we were at the Lodge—”

“Yes,” Cestra says impatiently. “We were in the Lodge last night.”

Last night? Memories return, breaking through cobwebs. The ogof. A needle. The van. My head, William healed me. “You shot me with something….”

Cestra rolls her eyes at Erebus. “This repetition is tedious.”

Repetition. The irritation on her face, laced with deep impatience. Like we’ve had this conversation before. But we haven’t. I just woke up here—wherever here is.

She sighs. “Yes, you were in the Lodge last night. We drugged you with a suppressant that blocks your ability to use your inheritances. That is why you’re”—she waves her hand in a circle near my face—“like this.”

“Drugged?” I blink slowly and register the odd feeling in my chest. The empty feeling. Like there’s a hole where my root furnace should be, where Arthur’s heart beats sometimes. I feel hollowed out. “Why?”

“So that you’ll behave.”

Erebus clears his throat. “So that we can all keep level heads, Crown Scion.”

“Listen, we’re going to keep these conversations simple. I ask you questions; you answer. If I ask you for more information, you elaborate. Understood?”

I blink at her. “Was that one of the questions?”

She groans. “No.”

She flips open a control panel in the center of the table, and a screen lowers on the wall behind her. As she works, my eyes find Erebus again. We stare at each other, and more memories return. My anger returns too.

“What’s happening with Sel?”

Cestra doesn’t look up, and speaks as images begin to appear on the screen. “Selwyn Kane’s trial will begin after our debrief of you concludes.” She says it so casually, like it is of no consequence to her either way.

“I’d like to… I’d like to speak on his behalf. As Crown Scion.”