Roake didn’t complain as he took the first swig, passing it to Noda. She held it aloft and then shrugged, taking a drink. When it reached Kerrigan, she looked at the label, but it gave nothing away. A red bottle of faerie punch had once knocked her on her ass for two days straight. Helly refused to heal her, and nothing Darby did made it better. She’d had to suffer the consequences. Gods, she hoped this wasn’t the same stuff.

She took a drink, and the punch went down smooth. Not usually a good sign. The more potent it was, the sweeter the punch, as if it were lulling you into a false sense of security.

“Let’s play a game!” Audria insisted after she took her drink. She pulled out a second bottle with a green liquid swishing inside and handed it off.

“What kind of game?” Roake asked, burping. They all groaned, and he just laughed.

“Truth or Dare.”

“What’s that?” Fordham asked.

Kerrigan looked at him skeptically. “Surely, you played Truth or Dare in the House of Shadows.”

Audria laughed. “It must be so dull there if you haven’t. Either you choose to answer a question truthfully or you perform some action. If you refuse one, you must do the other.”

“Ah. We called it Challenge or Consequence,” Fordham explained. “Everyone was challenged with a question, and if they refused to answer, they were given a consequence.”

“Ooh,” Audria gushed. “Let’s play that way!”

Kerrigan nudged him. “Look what you’ve done.”

“My apologies,” he said with a smirk that said he was nothing of the sort.

“I’ll start,” Audria chirped. “I challenge Noda.”

Noda sighed heavily. “Fine.”

“What is your deepest, darkest secret?”

Noda frowned and thought for a long minute. “That I’m not good enough for the Society and I can’t hack it.”

“That’s not a secret,” Roake said. “You already are good enough.”

Noda withdrew at the accusation. “Well, that’s what it feels like to me.”

The circle was quiet for a moment. That would be a heavy burden to hold.

“Your turn, Noda,” Audria said.

Noda swallowed. “I challenge Fordham.”

He sat up straight, anticipating the blow. Kerrigan guessed that the ones in the House of Shadows were brutal. If her short stint there was any indication.

“Who is your one true love?”

He balked. Whatever he’d been anticipating, that hadn’t been it.

Kerrigan held her breath. She waited to see if he would name Dacia. He’d bitten her head off at the mere mention of her name. She never brought it up again.

“Consequence,” he ground out.

Everyone blinked. They’d all thought it would be an easy question. He could have named anyone. Could have said he’d never been in love even. Instead he thought it so private that he wouldn’t even answer.