Lyssa taps her fingers on the wheel and glances to a display nestled in the center of the dashboard. “Nothing on our tail—yet. The extraction point seems to be out of their hearing range.”

“Like I said it’d be.”

“Like you said it’d be,” Lyssa agrees in a dry tone. “Helps that we incapacitated them.”

Samira grins. “They’re Merlins. They’ll recover.”

Lyssa shakes her head, eyes scanning the dark road we’ve pulled out onto. “Anyone ever tell you you’re absolutely terrifying, Sam?”

“Lots of people, yes,” Samira says.

“Wait!” I shout. The Jeep doesn’t stop moving but Lyssa’s eyes flash up to the rearview. “William is still back there!” Guilt surges in my chest. I should have asked about him already. “They’re drugging him, too, we have to—”

“We’re taking care of it.” Gill grasps my shoulder in a firm grip. “Deep breaths, Matthews. Panic is not helpful.”

“But—”

“Ophelia’s up and running.” Samira leans over to hand Gillian a small device.

“Everyone secure?” Gill asks.

Samira gives an unreadable sigh. “Did what we could.”

Is “everyone” William? Or…? “They have Sel, too.” I look between them.

“We know,” Gill responds, frowning. “At a Shadowhold. Harder for us to get in and out of a ’hold. Lot harder.”

“What does that mean?” I demand. “We have to save him!”

Gill shoots me a warning glance. “We’ll do what we can, kiddo. Calm down.”

“But—”

She tosses me an energy bar. “You need fuel. Use the time to get up to speed, Matthews.” She climbs to the front and kneels down to speak to Lyssa, dismissing me. My fist clenches around the bar. Alice rolls her eyes, snatches it from me, and starts peeling the wrapper back.

“Alice,” I begin, head spinning.

She gives me the bar. “Eat.”

I snap a piece off and talk while I chew. It’s some sort of thick, dry, chocolate-flavored thing, but I feel better after the first swallow. “Tell me what happened.”

She takes a deep breath. “The day of the Rite, William and I were in the Lodge infirmary waiting for you and the Regents to come back upstairs. But then there was a loud boom, like an explosion, and the whole damn floor rattled.”

“The Rite,” I mutter, “was a trap. They ambushed me while I was in a vision, and everything went to hell.”

She nods. “Felt like a bomb had gone off. It shook all of Will’s tools off their trays, glass pipettes shattering on the floor….”

I nod. “That was… that was me.”

The Lieges exchange glances. Alice whistles low. “Wonder if the Root—” She stops abruptly, presses her lips together. “It’s good that you were underground.”

I drop my eyes to the floor to avoid Gillian’s inquiring gaze, finishing off the bar. “Yeah.”