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We started up the stairs toward the ground level, and I looked at uys a little more closely They all—except Jayce, naturally—bore the marks of intense psychic exhaustion

“How did it go for you guys?” I asked as we reached the main hall upstairs

“Not as bad as last tih”

“It was fine” Kingston preened haughtily “I could do that every day”

“Shut up,” Kai growled “Those interrogations are hell, and you all know it”

“Only because you fight it” Jayce slipped an arh et I mean, it’s completely normal But honestly, if you just sit back and invite them in, it works so much better”

Kingston snorted “They can have what they’re good enough to get”

“You hid so from them?” Kai asked sharply

“Who said that? I didn’t say that All I’ to let some creepy elders poke around in my head unsupervised”

My instinct was to agree with Kingston I valuedelse But I didn’t want to have to go down there and breaktimes, so I looked up at Jayce instead

“Can you teach me?” I asked

“Teach you?”

“How to invite the about theout of it, when I was all disoriented Or, you know, literally not conscious I’d give theet to them”

Jayce rubbed his fingers thoughtfully over the necklace at his throat “I think I can I don’t know for sure Myme this stuff before I could talk, so it would kind of be like trying to teach you to breathe, it’s so second-nature to me now But I can try You’re welcome to learn too, Kai”

“Yeah, I’ll pass” Kai’s lip curled bitterly “I’ston on this”