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“Evander?”Leon murmured weakly.

Evander leaned forward anxiously.“Yes?”

“I shall feel much better if you nurse me back to health,” the Frenchman declared shamelessly.“With your own hands, I mean.”His eyes twinkled.“A guest room in your home would make the perfect location for my convalescence, I wager.Why, I can already feel my energy returning at the thought of your tender, loving care.”

Evander made an incoherent sound.

The healer shook his head with a disgusted expression and muttered under his breath about idiots taking a mile when they were given an inch.

They were distracted by the sight of Rufus and Shaw entering the infirmary.

The forensic mage frowned as she approached with the inspector.

“Everything alright, your Grace?You look a bit flushed.”

Evander noticed the way Rufus registered Leon’s brazen grin and grasped the situation fairly quickly.

“It’s nothing,” Evander said darkly.“Does Winterbourne have a message for me?”

“Only that we should accelerate our investigation now that the enemy knows we are closing in on them,” Rufus related in a hard voice.

“I’ll organise a team to investigate Professor Musgrave’s office at the Institute and his residence,” Shaw said sharply.

“Good.”Evander frowned and rubbed his chin.“I’ll send a message to Viggo.Now that we know of Musgrave’s involvement, it would benefit us ifNightshadelooked into his connections.It might help us pinpoint the location of that secret facility.”

The door to the infirmary opened.A constable poked his head in.Relief brightened his face at the sight of Evander.

“Your Grace, can you please make your way to the Artificers’ Lab?Mr.McAndrew requests your presence.”

Tension knotted Evander’s shoulders.He exchanged a cautious look with Rufus and Shaw and led the way to the door.

“What about me?”Leon called out indignantly behind them.

“You stay here and reflect on your actions,” Evander snapped over his shoulder.

“You tell him, your Grace,” the healer murmured.

The smell of raw magic washed over Evander when he entered the Artificers’ Lab ahead of Rufus and Shaw.Unlike the alchemists’ crowded workspace, this room was an ode to meticulous organisation, not an instrument or an artefact out of place.

Elias McAndrew sat at his work bench, his hands steepled under his chin and his normally cheerful face set in lines of concern as he stared at the warded box in front of him.It contained the brass and glass contraption they’d discovered.

A protective magic field shimmered around the entire thing.

“You wished to see us?”Evander asked without preamble.

McAndrew startled and looked at him distractedly.“Ah, your Grace.I didn’t notice you there.”

Evander could tell whatever the artificer had discovered about the device was troubling him.Rufus and Shaw traded a worried glance.

“What can you tell us about this artefact?”Evander prompted McAndrew quietly.

The artificer’s face darkened.“I know this is going to be hard to believe, but I think this thing has a similar function to theBlood Siphon.”

Dread brought a sour taste to Evander’s mouth.Though he’d suspected the same, hearing McAndrew confirm it made his worst fears seem like an inevitable reality.

“Are you certain?”

“As certain as I can be, your Grace,” McAndrew confirmed.“Whereas theBlood Siphonwas created to absorb and stabilise the life force of thralls, this artefact was created to extract and condense magic itself, likely before transferring it to a thrall vessel for storage, according to Whitley’s research.”