He crossed the room in a couple of strides and rifled through the open drawer. When I didn’t double over in pain, I gave a little nod. “Okay, it’s safe.”

Blythe was watching me from under her bangs, her brown eyes sparkling. “Smart girl. But, honestly, if I had some kind of deadly potion, wouldn’t I have used that on you instead of a letter opener?”

David snorted, turning the bottle of nail polish over in his long fingers. “She has a point, Pres.” As I snatched the bottle from him, he reached up to smooth his hair, making him look . . . well, he was never going to be entirely presentable, but at least better.

After dotting the back of all of our hands with the nail polish, David and I managed to untie Blythe, get her out of the chair, and tie her back up without her attempting to murder me. We navigated her down the stairs, and sure enough, even though we passed several people, no one so much as glanced in our direction. It was eerie.

We were at the car before David asked, “Why don’t Mages have potions that can kill people?”

I wasn’t sure if Blythe’s expression of disgust was for the question or for the way I kind of manhandled her into the backseat. “We’re not that powerful. A little mind control, some temporal disturbances . . . those we can pull off. Anything to do with human life is a little trickier. But I’m working on it, trust me.”

“Is that how you survived the car crash into my pool?” I asked her, but Blythe just fidgeted on the seat, trying to tuck her dress underneath her.

“I actually poofed out of there before the car hit.”

“You can just ‘poof’ out of places?” David leaned his forearms on the roof of the car, looking in at Blythe. “Can you also just poof into places?”

I handed David the keys—my hand still hurt too much to think about wrapping it around a steering wheel—and slid into the passenger seat, buckling my seat belt. “David, maybe don’t give the tiny psychotic witch ideas, okay?”

• • •

As David pulled out of the parking lot, I leaned back and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath through my nose. We’ll take her to Saylor. Saylor will know what to do.