Palamedes presses his lips together, frowning as he tries to find the simplest way to explain the terrible sacrifice that had been made on Harrow’s behalf—and the almost equally terrible thing Harrow had done in an effort to stop that sacrifice from wholly taking effect. “Harrow’s new powers had required the death of someone very close to her.” Marianne has heard him talk about Gideon, but it feels invasive, somehow, to now mention that his friend is technically dead, so he avoids naming her specifically. “In order to halt that death—in order to retain the possibility of life, you could say—she removed certain memories from her temporal lobe and shaped her skull in a way that would cause cranial hemorrhages if any of those memories were triggered.”

Almost unthinkingly, he picks up his spoon and absently stirs his tea. “For the record, I sincerely doubt that such an extreme intervention was necessary. I’m certain there was another way. Hell, if only I’d been there.”