Adilene felt sick knowing Gordy and Sasha were headed into danger and there was nothing she could do to help. Just like Iris, she and Max would only be in the way. But unlike the Chamber member, Adilene couldn’t brew a potion, no matter how hard she tried.

Max had fallen asleep on the couch, covered in a pile of blankets, the corners of his mouth stained brown from all the chocolate he had eaten out of Jessica’s pillowcase. Lying at the edge of the couch was Iris’s satchel, a few corked bottles poking out of the unzipped pocket.

“Here you go, dear,” Iris announced from the kitchen. “Dinner’s ready.” She had heated up macaroni and cheese over a pot of ogon oil and sat at the table, blowing across a spoon. “Has a bit of a gamey flavor. I hope you don’t mind.”

Adilene joined her and eyed her noodles with little interest. A chartreuse-colored orb Mrs. Glass had called a Jarqil Candle rested at the center of the table. The orange cheese in her bowl clumped together in unappealing glops, and Adilene’s hunger vanished, her thoughts too preoccupied with worry.

“What if they get caught?” Adilene asked.

“Don’t think that,” Iris said. “Optimism is a much stronger attitude.”

Adilene’s head bobbled. “I wish I could have gone with them.”

“And leave me behind, all by my lonesome? What would happen if I was discovered and no one was here to protect me?”

“We would’ve left Max,” Adilene reasoned.

As if in response, Max mumbled in his sleep and kicked off one of his blankets.

Iris held a finger to her lips. “Do you hear that?” she whispered.

Adilene jutted her chin forward. “What am I listening for?”

“I called it a ghost, but it’s a probably a snake or a rodent. A big one at that. When you least expect it, a floorboard will creak. Typically, when the conversation settles a bit.” Iris took a bite and grimaced, swallowing with some effort. “I know your heart was set on accompanying your friends, but how could you have helped them? If I’m not mistaken, you can’t brew, and you certainly ask a lot of questions, which could be a distraction.”

Adilene looked away, her cheeks reddening with embarrasment.

“Don’t look so sad.” Iris touched Adilene’s elbow. “With my injury, I’m no different than you are. We’re in the same boat, you and me. That’s not so bad, now, is it?”

The same boat? That meant that on her best day, Adilene was no better than an injured Elixirist. Whether she was trying to be insulting or not, Iris was coming across as flat-out rude.

“I can help,” Adilene muttered. “I was at B.R.E.W. when it was attacked.”

“Yes, I know,” Iris admitted. “You were captured by Scourges, were you not?”

Adilene bit down on her lip. “I also helped him catch Ms. Bimini!”

Iris waved her spoon like a baton. “You did—after you were snookered into believing she was a thirteen-year-old girl named Cadence and then led her straight to the Stitser’s lab. You practically gift-wrapped Gordy’s deepest secrets and gave them to her on a silver platter.”

It took all Adilene’s strength not to slam her hands down on the table. No matter how angry Iris made her, Adilene couldn’t deny the truth in her words. Maybe she was more trouble than she was worth. Maybe if Adilene hadn’t been around, none of these problems would have happened to Gordy.

“We just need to play to our strengths,” Iris said. “That’s all I’m saying. People like you just need to not get in the way. That’s the best you can hope for and the best help you can provide.” Iris pushed away her bowl of ogon-oil-infused mac and cheese. “Why did you become friends with Gordy?”

“What?” Adilene asked.

“Did you get paired up on a school project? Sit next to each other in a classroom?”

“Gordy used to live across the street from me,” Adilene said.

Iris’s eyes twinkled with understanding. “That makes sense.”

“Why does that make sense?” Adilene rested her elbows on the table and leaned toward Iris. She wasn’t sure where the woman was headed with this conversation, but felt certain she wouldn’t end up liking it.

“Most Drams befriend other Drams when they’re younger. Their parents see to it they have appropriate companions to play with. Makes it easier to practice potion making. At least, that’s how a normal Elixirist family functions.”

Adilene pursed her lips, squeezing her fingers into fists. “I guess the Stitsers aren’t normal Elixirists, then.”

“Oh, I know.” Iris sighed. “Believe me, my dear, I know.”

A large black beetle with two sets of translucent wings suddenly dropped from the ceiling into Iris’s bowl. Orange cheese spilled onto the table, and both Iris and Adilene moved back in surprise, out of the way of the splattering liquid.

Iris looked up at the ceiling. Adilene followed her gaze, but nothing else scuttled out.

The bug made a clicking sound, wings beating wildly, then it fell silent.

Adilene peered over the lip of the bowl. The insect lay on its back, floating in the sauce, tiny antennae twitching.

It was dead.

But something was off about the creature. Emerald-green liquid seeped from the bug’s shell, mixing with the macaroni.

Adilene’s eyes widened. “That’s a potion!”

“What do you mean?” Iris climbed awkwardly to her feet, grappling for the crutch, as the distant scurrying of insects sounded from upstairs. Another beetle flew drunkenly into the room, only to drop dead on the floor with a splat.

Iris pointed toward the living room. “Fetch me my satchel!”

There was a clop of heels on the tile, and someone cleared a throat.

“I knew I saw you,” Esmeralda Faustus exclaimed, stepping into the kitchen and wielding a Decocting Wand as though it were a battle-ax. “I heard that machine leaving the Pinkermans’ yard the other night and saw that clever trap you sprung on Steffan. It wasn’t difficult picking up your trail and following you here.”

Esmeralda’s hair had grown long and discolored. Her sunburned skin was peeling, the corners of her mouth pinched and cracked, but she looked as confident and determined as when she had sat across from Gordy in the Vessel room almost a year ago, on the verge of ending B.R.E.W. with the Eternity Elixir.

Iris wobbled, her eyes flickering between Esmeralda and Adilene. “Mrs. Faustus, you have broken so many laws already. Don’t make another mistake. The punishment would be—”

“Punishment?” Esmeralda laughed. “I’ve already been Banished and ExSponged. My life taken from me. My parents taken from me. What could B.R.E.W. possibly do to me now?”

Adilene tried to challenge Esmeralda as she strode into the room, but the woman simply cast her aside with a harsh shove.

“When I finish with you, there will be no more B.R.E.W., and I will be rewarded. My powers restored. My family released from their Forbidden Zones.”

“Max!” Adilene shouted. “Wake up!”

A bottle containing white liquid shot through the air, shattering against an empty chair in the kitchen. The metal legs buckled as though made of rubber. Max had launched the potion from a seated position on the couch.

“Careful, Maxwell,” Esmerald warned. “If you strike me with Jackjoint Juice, I will squash you like a beetle.”

Adilene heard Max struggling and saw Yeltzin diving over the couch, grappling for the satchel. The burley Russian was too large for Max to fight, and within seconds, Yeltzin had Max in a headlock.

“Now, where was I?” Esmeralda continued. “Oh, yes. Iris Glass, by the power granted me by the Vessel, I hereby proclaim you ExSponged.” Esmeralda swung the Decocting Wand toward Iris in a wide arc.

The older woman, hobbled by her injured leg, could do nothing to stop it.

The weapon whooshed through the air, and Adilene stepped in front of it, the end of the wand slamming against her shoulder. She felt a wave of heat coursing through her chest and heard screams—one from Iris, and one that felt like it had bubbled up from her own lungs—as she collapsed back into the fallen Chamber member.

Adilene felt her heart beating in her throat and Iris sobbing beneath her as they fell to the floor together. And then, through her blurry vision, she saw someone else charging into the room. Assuming the wards had been broken and the rest of the Scourges had arrived to finish them off, Adilene cried out in horror.

Then, to Adilene’s surprise, the mystery figure took flight, vaulted the kitchen table, and plowed into Esmeralda Faustus like a torpedo.