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I pressed my lips together. “No…” I agreed. “It doesn’t, but it could tell me a bit about my life before…”
Endora scowled at me, pouring the piping hot water into a cracked mug. “The point of this isn’t a trip down memory lane for you, Mirielle. It’s giving us leverage on Agnan and the Order.”
“I know.” I stopped myself from asking anything else.
Endora ambled around the counter of the kitchenette and handed me the tea. I grimaced and stared at it, knowing that it was my daily runeshade concoction, but I didn’t argue as I swallowed my first sip, the water burning as it hit my windpipe. Endora stood back, waiting to catch the black puff when it jumped from my lips.
We stared at one another.
“Take another sip,” she drawled, her eyes widening.
I did as she instructed, my pulse quickening. I parted my lips in case I had somehow managed to swallow this round of darkness, but even so, there was no plume of ebony to escape from my lips.
“One more,” Endora urged me, excitement coloring her words now, her face almost even to mine.
I downed the rest of the tea in one solid swallow, ignoring the disgusting aftertaste as I unhinged my jaw, waiting for the blackness to coast forward.
“Well, well, well,” Endora murmured, setting herself back and falling promptly onto her haunches. “Maybe there wasn’t as much darkness in you as we initially thought.”
Glee sparked through me, and I jumped up, resisting the desire to do a happy dance right there in Endora’s living room.
“Are you saying it’s gone? All of Agnan’s influence?”
“It certainly seems that way,” she agreed slowly. “Except for those blockers he has in your mind.”
“But the dark magic, the anomaly in my DNA—”
“Let’s not jump the gun here, Mirielle,” Endora cut me off. “I’ll still need to run some tests, and we’re going to continue with these sessions to see what else we can find, but for now, yes, you’re clear, it seems.”
Unable to help myself, I threw my arms around Endora’s neck and squeezed her. “Oh, thank you so much, Endora!” I sobbed, happiness overwhelming me.
“Okay, okay,” she mumbled, untangling herself from me. She eyed me in embarrassment. “You should go get some rest now.”
“I’m going to find Zen…” I waited for her to resist the idea, but she didn’t, and I exhaled, wanting to hug her again. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” she muttered, but I was already out the door, rushing through the second floor toward the stairwell to find my mate.
I paused at the landing and looked up toward the third floor, but a quick glance at my phone told me that he was probably still with the Council of Ministers for the day.
I decided to wait for him in his study. I barely got in the door when Endora materialized before me.
“I changed my mind,” she informed me before I could catch my breath from the surprise of seeing her.
I wondered if I would ever get used to her appearing and disappearing like she did.
“About what?” I breathed, setting myself on one of the tufted leather sofas in Zen’s office.
“About the probe.”
I stared up at her in confusion. “What?”
“Maybe we are going about this all wrong,” she said slowly. “Agnan picked you for a reason, you and the others.”
“Because we were orphans. No one was going to miss us. We were dispensable and easily replaceable.”
“But he kept you around a lot longer than the others,” Endora pushed. “Right?”
I frowned. “Some of the others were around for a while, but they were lost in battle, or they left to get married when they got older…”
