“He’ll be out for the night,” said Jack. “Mira and I will be here when he wakes to question him. We’ll have to hurry, since we don’t know how long it will take for his horde of Atrika to figure out what happened.”

“We’ll wait with you,” Sarafina replied.

Jack shook his head. “There’s no sense in all of us being miserable. Come back in the morning and we’ll question him together.”

“What if the Atrika show up before then and find you all alone?”

Jack shook his head. “We won’t be. Thomas, Isabelle, Claire, and Adam are all due back momentarily. This will be the first place they come, don’t worry. Go get some rest. I know you’ve been on guard and not sleeping well. Claire and I know how that is. Get the hell out of Gribben for a while, and we’ll call you if we need you.”

“Do we look that poorly rested?” Sarafina asked.

“Yes,” said Mira with a gentle smile. “Go sleep a little.”

Theo didn’t have a problem with the idea of getting away from Gribben. The place was awful. With powerful spells etched into the very mortar, it was the one place on Earth that was completely magickless. No witch or warlock once having passed its threshold could access their power. It was akin to being stripped and raped. Theo lost his breath every time he came through the doors. Here he felt bare and raw, heavy and oddly plain. Melba toast. That’s how Thomas described it. Dry, flavorless, easily breakable.

Gribben was the Coven’s prison, where they kept all warlocks and offending witches before they were tried and sentenced. Some were inmates for life. For any witch of great power, it was a potent punishment. The stronger the witch, the worse Gribben felt.

The last time Stefan had been housed here, he’d become suicidal. But an Atrika had broken him out, and if the Atrika could figure out where the Coven had taken him, Theo had no doubt they’d break him out again. Their gamble right now was getting as much information from Stefan as they could before that happened.

He took Sarafina’s hand and led her out of the cell. “If you guys insist, I’m not arguing,” he said as they left.

Theo only started to feel alive again by the time they reached his apartment. Once through the door, Sarafina kicked off her shoes with a heavy sigh. Neither of them had been sleeping well.

He scooped her into his arms before she could draw another breath. Ignoring her yelp of surprise, he carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed.

She rose up on her elbows and crooked a knee. Giving him a come-hither look, she murmured, “Does capturing warlocks excite you, Theo?”