I turned to Sydney in amazement. “Are you seriously considering this? I mean, I’m all for crazy plans, but this is out there even for me.”

Sabrina frowned in thought. “The Warriors usually just sponsor one person, but I’ve occasionally seen someone present two. If you could disguise yourselves, I could get you both in.”

“Then send me and Sydney,” I said.

“No way,” said Eddie. “I’m in much better condition to beat those freaks up. No offense, Adrian.” I started to say I could protect her with spirit but knew she wouldn’t like that.

“You should stay behind, Adrian,” agreed Sydney. “You could try to compel answers out of Alicia when the witches unfreeze her. No one but you can do that.”

I opened my mouth to protest but couldn’t think of anything to say. Sydney had me cornered and knew it. I wanted to go with her, but not because I had a concrete plan for dealing with the Warriors—I only had a gut instinct to protect her. But she was right about Alicia. We could give the witches their two days while Sydney went undercover with the Warriors. Hopefully that would weaken whatever compulsion protection Alicia had put upon herself.

“You’re endorsing me using spirit?” I asked in amazement.

“No,” she admitted. “I’m hoping they can get answers out of her through other means. But if they can’t, I have a feeling you’ll use compulsion regardless.”

“You’re a wise woman, as usual,” I told Sydney.

She smiled at that, but I could tell she wasn’t happy with the idea at all. With a sigh, she turned back to Sabrina. “How much trouble will you get in for this? For bringing two spies in? Because obviously we aren’t really going to stay with the Warriors.”

Sydney had a point. What she and Eddie were volunteering for—infiltrating some barbaric initiation ritual—was dangerous, but we couldn’t forget Sabrina’s role in this. She was playing a game with a very volatile group and could ultimately face more risk.

“Depends on if you guys get caught or not.” Sabrina offered a tight smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “So don’t get caught, okay?”

Trey looked grimmer and grimmer as the planning pro-gressed. “But this only happens if you can’t convince the Alchemists that the Warriors are holding Jill. If you can convince them, they can hopefully do the heavy lifting so you don’t have to get involved with any of this madness.”

“Hopefully,” agreed Marcus. “But in the meantime, we should prep Sydney and Eddie on what to expect if they do go with Sabrina.”