“Jesus,” he said.
“Better it comes out here than when I’m using magic,” I told him seriously. “Almost every major obstacle to being a wizard comes down to a lack of emotional control. Learning to manage your feelings isn’t optional.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Fitz said. “Just set them aside.”
I blinked for a moment, grabbed a towel, and rubbed my head andupper body with it. “Not really,” I said. “There’s times when you need to do that—when the pressure is on and you’re working on emergency time. When seconds count. You can stuff them down for a bit and come back to them later. That’s normal. But it isn’t enough. Stuffing things down comes back to gut you at the damnedest times. You gotta learn how to manage your feelings over years, not just suppress them in the short term. You start wielding power at White Council levels, you’re going to be around a while. Means taking your mental health damned seriously.”
He sat up from the book, breathing hard himself. “Is that why you push so hard in the gym?”
“It’s one reason,” I said. “Moving your body around is good for your head. And practicing something that requires discipline does a lot of positive things for you, too.” I nodded at a threadbare cushion in the corner. “Meditation time, kid.”
“Aw, Harry,” Fitz complained. “It’s boring.”
“Boring is fine,” I said. “Boring is good. Gives your head time to sort things out. Go breathe and think about why you might need that someday.”
Fitz heaved an enormous sigh. But he slouched over to the cushion, settled himself cross-legged on it, sat up straight, rested his palms on his knees, and closed his eyes.
He was covered in sweat and would start to chill a little in only a moment or two, but that was routine now. Learning how to control the body’s instinctive reactions was a good warm-up to learning to control powerful magical energies.
Boot steps came thumping confidently up the stairs to the gym and Bear’s voice preceded her down the hallway. “Seidrmadr, we got company.”
I hung the towel over my shoulders and frowned at her.
“The Wardens are paying you a visit,” she said. Her voice was calm, but she was cleaning her nails with a short, hook-pointed knife while she spoke.
“Today?” I demanded. “Damn.”
“Get used to it,” she said. “Always something interfering with date night, in my experience.”
“Hah hah,” I said in a flat tone. “Fitz, give it forty-five minutes, then take the back stairway down to the kitchen. I’ll meet you there.”
My new apprentice nodded once without speaking or opening his eyes. Good. He was learning things.
I threw on my discarded T-shirt, got a fresh towel and did my hair again, then raked my fingers back through it and followed Bear down the stairs to the great hall.
Two grey-cloaked Wardens were waiting for me there. One of them was Carlos Ramirez, solid and stiff with his cane held in both hands and his silver saber at his side. His arm was still set in its cast from where the Black Court elder had shattered his forearm. He looked exhausted, like he had during the war with the Red Court, solid with muscle yet with his skin stretched tighter over his bones than it should have been. He’d lost weight over the past month. He looked…
Older.
Hell. I couldn’t throw any stones at him on that score. I was shedding weight despite my best efforts to keep eating. He’d lost some of the same people I had during the battle. He turned to me as I regarded him and gave me a sober nod. I returned it.
The second Warden was a young woman, about five four and petite, but muscled like the ballet dancer she had been before her talent had emerged and she’d been claimed by the White Council. She had pale, stark features, white-blond hair that fell to her lower back in a straight, neat cut, and almost invisible eyebrows, and wore her dark suit, grey cloak, and silver court sword with an air of practicality.
“Ilyana,” I said. “Long time no see. I thought you were still in China with Ancient Mai.”
She regarded me the way one might something both dangerous and disgusting, like one of those big Komodo lizards with the poisonous, gangrenous drool. She pressed her lips together in disapproval and shook her head once. “A great many things have changed since you were cast from the White Council, Harry Dresden. It would save us all time and trouble if you would confess to your misdeeds and accompany us back to Edinburgh.”
I mopped a bit more sweat from my face. Even the White Councilshouldn’t have found out about Fitz already, unless someone in the castle was an informer. Pleasant thought, and maybe something I should expect to happen sooner or later. But if they thought I was violating my parole, they sure as hell wouldn’t have sent only two people to arrest me. So it stood to reason that Ilyana was on a fishing trip.
“I’m famous for that,” I drawled. “Saving the Council time and trouble. Hey, Carlos.”
“Harry,” he said casually. “You’ll have to excuse Ilyana. She grew up in the Morgan school.”
Ilyana made a disgusted sound and turned away impatiently. “This is a waste of time. He’s going to cross the line sooner or later.”
“All the better to get him used to being visited then, isn’t it,” Ramirez said amiably. “If you’re unable to perform your duties with a modicum of objectivity, Warden, I’ll be happy to ask Captain Luccio to find a different position for you.”
“I am fine,” Ilyana snapped. She turned to me. “Have you had any contact with any member of the White Council?”
