Jackie remained undaunted. “Being in that frozen state strips you of energy. Two days like that, and she’ll be physically and magically burned out. Much easier to question. Even then, I still wouldn’t free her unless we’re in an extremely secure location with extra backup. She’s too unpredictable.”

“Two days is too much,” Eddie reiterated. I couldn’t help but share his dismay. Sydney, however, looked thoughtful.

“Alicia will be less of a threat and maybe easier to interrogate by then,” she said slowly. “And in the meantime, we might be able to get some faster answers about the Warriors.”

“How?” Trey and I asked together.

“From Marcus,” Sydney said. “Or rather, from one of his contacts. She’s undercover in the Warriors. She might be able to uncover something before we could get it out of Alicia anyway. Let me check with her and Marcus. If they can’t dig up anything in twenty-four hours, the witches will release Alicia for questioning.”

No one seemed thrilled by that compromise, but they agreed to it. We all finally dispersed, with Eddie going to stay with Trey while Sydney and I returned to Clarence’s house. Sydney called Marcus along the way to explain the situation, and he promised to get back to her as soon as he could. When we arrived at Clarence’s, Rose and Dimitri were chomping at the bit to know what had happened. I let Sydney fill them in while I went to my mom and Declan. He’d only been in my life for a couple of days, but I was surprised by how much I ached to see him, even though he did little more than sleep. After the turbulent events of the day—and the panic I’d felt upon learning Sydney had faced Alicia alone—Declan’s presence was soothing.

Marcus called Sydney back a couple of hours later, saying he had news and would come to Palm Springs immediately to deliver it in person. Marcus was as much a wanted fugitive as Sydney, though, and in his usual cautious way, he arranged for a meeting away from both Clarence’s and Trey’s the next day.

The place he chose was a Mongolian restaurant outside of town. Rose and Dimitri, after much coaxing, agreed to wait at Clarence’s for an update so as not to create too large a crowd. We had Trey and Eddie join us, though, because Trey had useful insight about the Warriors and because no force on earth could keep Eddie from making plans about Jill. When we walked into the restaurant, Sydney exhaled in relief.

“Good. He brought Sabrina with him.”