EMBER’S POV
I bring it down against the edge of the counter hard enough to shatter it, clay and brew and a dark wet smear spraying across the wood.
And into the ringing silence that follows, I start to laugh, because it is funny, it’s the most elaborate murder I’ve ever nearly walked myself into, and I can’t help it.
For a long moment, nobody says a word.
“Well.” I set the surviving cup down, gentle, and look between the two of them. “That was very good. Truly. I almost drank it.”
“How,” the old man breathes. He’s leaning both hands on the counter now, his eyes bright as a boy’s. “How did you see it. Forty-one years I’ve run that game, and I’ve watched Alphas and Gammas and a sitting Luna lift the wrong cup with my face doing the very thing it just did. How did you see it?”
“I didn’t
