Two of his guards approach Ines, and as they do, Aarya kicks the one closest to her in the knee. The guard grunts, and before she can pull her leg back a second time, he backhands her so hard her lip splits.

Aarya spits the blood on the floor, confirming what I imagined the grime in here might consist of. “Lion guards who let a chained prisoner get a kick in,” she says. “Tsk, tsk.”

The blood drains from my face. Damn it, Aarya, why are you egging them on? But the moment I think the question, I know the answer—to distract them from Ines. And I respect her for it, no matter how risky and incendiary it might be. She’s fearlessly standing up for her friend—sister, really. Jag must realize why she’s doing it, too, or maybe he just realizes Aarya loves a reaction, because he doesn’t bother responding to her; he doesn’t even spare her a look.

Instead, he focuses all his energy on Ines. The guards unshackle her and drag her forward, pushing her to her knees. They undo her braids and the lightning poison falls to the floor.

Jag picks it up, turning it curiously in his fingers. “Well,” he says, clearly pleased. “This looks remarkably like the vial you smashed on the floor last night, November. Interesting how things work out sometimes, isn’t it?”

He looks me in the eye, and even though his expression remains unchanged, I can’t shake the feeling that maybe they did search our hair—that they searched it and he knew what was there, choosing instead to intimidate us. His warning rings in my head: an undisciplined mind only leads to suffering.

“While I’m intrigued by a substance that is so precious you would destroy it rather than give it to me, I don’t imagine that poison will aid you in your current situation,” he says, pulling out his knife and lifting Ines’s chin with it. “So I think it only prudent that we search a little further.”

My whole body tenses and I steal a fearful glance at Aarya.

“I remember you,” Jag says to Ines, his tone unwaveringly calm and sure. “You’re that little Fox girl whom I let live, aren’t you?”

Ines’s expression remains neutral, but her eyes burn with hatred. I know Jag sees it, too, because he nods at her.

“Such a shame,” he says as though she disappoints him. “I remember receiving a report that your family went down rather easily. I would have thought them harder to kill.” Anger sparks in my chest. His tone is polite and his cruelty is effortless.

My wrists throb, and I realize I’m straining against my shackles, like maybe I could break them off the wall by force. And instantly I realize Aarya was right; Jag is a monster that needs to be removed from power by any means necessary.