“Respectfully? You are literally sitting on me.” And he’s heavy. My attempts to push him off are proving utterly futile.

He mutters some more about how everyone only trusts me because of my family while he trained so rigorously blah, blah, blah. As if he doesn’t take every chance he gets to remind people that he’s the direct descendant of a Borgia.

He decides on using the rope for my feet, which he adeptly ties together at the ankles. Maybe knot tying was one of the many things I missed during those “rigorous trainings.”

I make shiin and try to conduct, but nothing happens. I’m used to repressing my Ha’i around the Families. Not to mention that with the pressure of Alfie sitting on me scratching loose the memories of being trapped in a box, I’m a far cry from the calm mindset I generally try to cultivate when summoning Ha’i.

When Alfie finally moves his weight off my body, I try to reach for my spoon, but he’s quicker than me and twists my arms behind my back, binding them together using, of all things, his ridiculous tie. Then he takes both my spoon and my phone from my pocket.

Once I’m all trussed up, he steps back, and I shimmy into a sitting position. Rafe would be furious at me for managing to get into this situation without defending myself.

Alfie is pacing back and forth while rapidly messaging on his phone. “Do you understand what you’ve done?” he asks me.

“Saved a child who was kidnapped and suffering?”

“You’ve exposed one of our most covert locations. You may have undone years of work. We could be forced to destroy this entire site if word gets out.” He shakes his phone at me. “And don’t think I didn’t find the trojan horse in your immature meme.”

“That’s right. Your lack of caution is the real reason this covert location is at risk.”

“You little…” he blusters in a contained internal tantrum, and though it’s too dark to really see, I’d like to imagine his stupid face is an angry shade of purple. “You can gloat all you want once I have one of those collars on you.”

Horror sears up my spine at the memory of antimatter stinging my palms.

“That’s not necessary.” I try to remain calm. “Just call the rest of the Inner Chamber. Call Dr. Ambrose if you don’t think my mom or Kor will be impartial.” There’s no way any of them would put me in a collar, except for—

“My father’s already on his way.”