23.1 BEFORE HE COULD THINK

She started by telling him about her mother.

Alisa told him how her mother had disappeared—and had been presumed dead, though they never found the body—when she was five years old. She told him about the naiad and the island, how she survived, and how she came to think that maybe what happened to her mother was her fault.

Alisa told him how she thought that she could have unconsciously been using her Gift and that she killed her.

“Not that I like repeating myself, but that’s bullshit. And you know it,” Jester told her bluntly. “Your mother did what any mother would have done. You didn’t force her to risk her life.”

“How would you know that?” she asked sharply. “How would anyone know that? You weren’t there, but I was. You don’t know how powerful my Gift can be if I don’t control it—”

“Oh, I think everyone on this floor is aware of how powerful you