Page 40 of Royal Fate

My body shivered and trembled, but Endora wrapped her arms around me, covering me in her blue teleporting smoke. When I looked up again, I was in the north wing suite, standing next to the canopied bed.

“Rest now. You already overdid it.”

“How much longer will I have to do that?” I rasped, falling onto the mattress.

I felt nauseous and weak, my entire body shaking. Endora moved toward the bar fridge to find me a bottle of water.

“Agnan worked at you for years,” she reminded me. “I have no idea how much darkness is inside you, but I would think that we have some weeks ahead of us if we want to get it all out of you.”

“Weeks!” I sputtered. “There has to be a faster way!”

“You can’t rush this, or you’ll end up a corpse,” she said flatly. “And it’s not just a matter of utilizing the peppers every day, Mirielle. Now that your memories are back, we need to start doing the probes into your mind again.”

I gaped at her, remembering the sessions she had put me through when I’d first arrived.

“It’s for your own good and to find out what we can about stopping the Order of Souls.”

I closed my eyes and willed myself to stop shaking so badly. “What does Zen say about all this?” I mumbled.

“Whose idea do you think it was?” she asked coldly. “Do you want me to tell him that you’re not on board?”

With a very concerted effort, I managed to open my eyes and look at the enchantress, but she had already vanished, leaving me alone and trembling in the suite as I pondered what the upcoming weeks would be like.

I bet she’s enjoying this,I thought miserably.I’m surprised she stopped me from eating the whole damn pepper.

* * *

But after thefirst encounter with the runeshades, I learned to take the pepper in small doses every day, and I never ended up feeling as sick. Endora lined up daily sessions to do probes inside my head, making me down a thick, disgusting potion that only she knew before levitating me in her chambers and chanting in a spell language I didn’t know.

“He’s done a block on you,” she informed me after our second session, annoyance lacing her voice.

I dropped to the floor unceremoniously from my levitation pose and grunted. Endora strolled toward her kitchenette and put the kettle on, ignoring my scathing look as I glowered at her, picking myself off the floor.

“Who? What?” I muttered, standing and brushing debris off my sundress. “Agnan?”

“Yes, Agnan. Who else?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what you’re doing when you have me up there,” I complained.

She eyed me scornfully. “I told you. I’m trying to get into your head and see what he’s told you about his plans for the future. But whatever is in your past has blanks from your time with him. He’s clever. He has firewalls up around the time you spent with him. I suppose he did it with all of you. I had the same problem with the captives we took.”

I’d forgotten about the prisoners they had taken in during the last attack.

“You tried it with them, too?” I asked, my mind whirling slowly.

“I thought it was just a resistance they were putting up, but I think it’s him. He’s worked you all over really well.”

I set myself down on Endora’s dilapidated corduroy couch, tucking my feet underneath my buttocks.

“What can you see?”

“Nothing! Aren’t you listening? There’s nothing about your time with him.”

I hesitated, my mind whirling. “What about before that?” I asked slowly. “What about my time in the orphanage?”

The kettle whistled, and Endora turned to make her tea.

“What good will that do us? It has nothing to do with Agnan.”

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