He was probably right. The mere thought of confronting such a memory was already making my hands shake. Feeling as if I was about to sign my life away all over again, I lifted the cup to my lips.

“Wait.”

I paused.

“Paige, you do not have to show me this memory. For your sake, I hope you do. I hope you can. But you can say no. I will respect your privacy.”

“I wouldn’t be so cruel,” I said. “Nothing’s worse than a story without an end.” Before he could reply, I drank the tea.

Warden had lied: this stuff wasn’t just bitter. It was the foulest thing I’d ever tasted, like a mouthful of metal shards. I decided in a heartbeat that I would rather drink bleach than touch salvia tea ever again. I choked on it. Warden took my face in his hands. “Hold it down, Paige. Hold it!”

I tried. Some of it came back into the cup, but most of it went down. “What now?” I coughed.

“Wait.”

I didn’t have to wait for long. I hunched over, shuddering as waves of nausea rolled over me. The taste was so pervasive I thought it would never leave my mouth.

And then the lights went out. I fell back on the cushions, and I sank.

25 The Dissolution

25

The Dissolution

We stood in a circle, like we might in a séance. Six out of seven Seals.

Nadine was going to kill someone. I could see it in every inch of her face. In the middle of the circle was Zeke Sáenz, tied with velvet ribbons to a chair, his head between his sister’s hands. We’d been attacking his mind for hours, but no matter how much he struggled and groaned, Jax wouldn’t relent. If his gift could be learned, it would be an asset to the gang: the ability to resist all external influence, both from spirits and from other voyants. So he sat in his chair, smoking a cigar, waiting for one of us to break him.

Jax had studied Zeke for a long time. The rest of us had been forgotten, left to our own criminal devices. Even after rigorous investigations, he hadn’t predicted that our unreadable would be in so much pain when we attacked him. His dreamscape was resilient and opaque, impenetrable by spirits. We’d sent spool after spool at him, to no avail. His mind sent them ricocheting all over the room, like water off a marble. Like his new name—Black Diamond.

“Come on, come on, you wretched rabble,” Jax barked. His fist hit the desk. “I want to hear him scream three times as loud as that!”