Bram shakes his head. “Even if we could figure out that part, poisoning him won’t work. Breakers are trained never to accept food or drink while on duty. Rasmus won’t ingest anything he hasn’t seen prepared. And he’d be especially suspicious of anything we offer him.”

Jacey chews her thumbnail. “If only I were matched to lotions instead of potions.”

Talon laughs. “Lotions instead of potions?”

“Lotions, potions, and explo-shuns,” Jacey says in a sing-songy voice. The terminology makes me smile. Mixers can be matched to one of three specialties—topicals, ingestibles, or explosives. Jacey works with ingestibles, so her magic is limited to things you can swallow.

“There’s more than one way to administer a sleeping tonic,” Jacey continues, “and in this case, a topical would be easier to use without Rasmus knowing what we were up to. But even so, that doesn’t solve the problem of him collapsing on us.”

Talon gives a low whistle. “Remind me never to cross a Mixer.”

Jacey playfully punches his shoulder. “You’re only just learning this now?”

“So is it possible that you could make a topical?” I ask. “Do you know how?”

A hush falls over the room. Jacey pulls her legs to her chest. When she speaks, her voice is low and nervous. “I probably could, but I don’t know if I dare. After what happened with Jensen …”

“I would never ask if it weren’t important.”

Jacey’s eyes drop to her lap. She traces patterns on her knees with her fingers. The silence in the room grows into a thing with claws.

“Never mind,” I say. “Forget I said anything.”

Her hands go still. She lifts her eyes to mine. “We learned about something interesting in training last week.”

I hold my breath and wait for her to keep talking.

“What was it?” Talon asks.

“Waking sedative potions,” Jacey says. “They’re often used when Mixers are working with Healers—given to patients to reduce anxiety.”

“But how would that help us with Rasmus?” I ask.

“Because it also affects memory.” She wraps her arms tightly around her legs and rests her cheek on her knees. “I think I could make a version that could be absorbed through the skin. And then we’d need to find some way to actually make him touch it.”

“Jacey …” But I don’t know how to finish the sentence. I hate that I’ve put her in this position, and yet I can’t bring myself to reject her offer.

“It’s not as if it would hurt him,” she says.

Tessa shifts uncomfortably in her seat. “So how would it work?”

“We’d find a way to give him a dose before we ever leave Ivory Hall, and he shouldn’t remember anything from when it kicks in until it wears off.”

“But he won’t be unconscious?”