Tom had known—it was why Elazar had sent Bianca and Annalisa to Grace Loray. Had Bianca already been pregnant when she arrived on this shore? Could Teo’s father be...Elazar?
No—Teo was too young. Wasn’t he? Lu had heard from Bianca only that Teo’s father was a soldier who had died during the revolution. But where did the lies end? Were other children of Elazar’s experiments out there? Who was Teo’s father? Worse, a question Lu could barely think, let alone ask aloud: did Teo have permanent magic?
No. Unless Elazar’s people had figured out the proper mix of magic plants and Visjorn blood, the result wouldn’t have been the same as when Mechts gave it to their people. Or Tuncian spices, Emerdian brickwork, and more—Elazar hadn’t known of those things until recently. Teo couldn’t have magic in his blood. Hecouldn’t.
Of all the people around Lu, Jakes was the only one connecting the same pieces. His face went utterly white. “Bianca’s child survived? Pious God—”
“Who’s Bianca?” Vex asked.
A divot punctured Kari’s brow. “Teo’s mother.”
“She was part of Elazar’s experiments,” Lu filled in, breathless.
Ben gagged. “My father experimented onTeo? No—”
“He thinks Teo has permanent magic,” Lu said. “That was why Tom brought him here, to the attack. To test him.”
It was madness. Throwing an innocent child into a battle to turn him into a weapon—
Bile seared Lu’s throat and she closed her eyes. But there lay only memories, everything Tom had trained her to do, the blood on her hands, the secrets and lies—
This was it, wasn’t it? This was what he had given her Menesia to forget. The dreamlike scene that had plagued her in the Port Camden prison, of Kari accusing Tom of destroying everything, of breaking someone’s trust—Kari and Lu had found out about his involvement with Teo, hadn’t they? That he had stolen Bianca’s and Annalisa’s memories too, and was a spy for Elazar, watching over Teo should he show any signs of magic?
Obliterate him,Lu’s rage said.Find him. End him like I ended Milo.
But that demand was an echo now, a fiery cry that burned itself out.
No more blood. No more fighting, no more war,no more.
She wanted Teo back. She wanted Argrid off her island.
She wanted peace.
“Elazar has everything now.” Jakes’s voice grated. “You can’t—you can’t do nothing. Why are you giving up?”
“I’m not giving up,” Lu told him. “I’m just refusing to fight this war on Elazar’s terms. I will not let Teo get swept into an even deadlier war. This has to end without more magic!”
“The goddamn Argridian defensor is on our side,” Pierceboomed. “Everyone wants to fight the war this way—except you.” He pointed at Lu, Kari, Ben. “That’s why we’re leaving. Let your wrongness strangle you.”
He turned, tugging Nate with him. Rosalia made to leave as well.
Kari shot a step after them. “And what isyourplan, if ours is wrong?”
“The Grozdan Gloria has always supported us. If I ask, she’ll send us aid.” Rosalia turned back. She hovered a handbreadth over the ground, her Aerated Blossom powers undiminished. “I don’t care about the rest of you. Attack, don’t attack, die, live. This isn’t Grozda’s war, and if we can’t get more permanent magic out of it, there’s nothing here for us.”
“Yeah,” Nate snapped. “The people on this island hate us, anyway.They’rethe ones who told Argrid how to get into the sanctuary. I ain’t gonna waste my time fighting for—”
“This city isdestroyed!” Kari’s shout silenced him and the whole area. “Port Fausta is destroyed.You say this island is yours, that it belongs to raiders, yet you have no respect for it because you demand that the people respect you first, or the Council respect you first, or Argrid respect you first. You always wait for others to move first. Take control! You cannot help only the people loyal to you.”
Rosalia floated closer, intimidating. “The people on this island deserve to suffer. They deserve to know what it’s like, to be hunted and hated and treated as less thanhuman. You bet your ass I help only those loyal to me. The Council wasn’t any different. Argrid, too.”
She included Ben with a glance. Lu stepped between them, into the stream of hatred.
“You’re right,” Kari said, her voice lower but no less intense. “The Council had flaws.But when this war ends, what kind of world do you imagine if you become the oppressor? You want to terrorize people, and ostracize them, and be the one they hate? You feel you deserve to inflict pain because pain has been inflicted on you?”
Rosalia’s shoulders rose, but her feet met the dirt road again. Lu’s brows lifted.
“The Council had flaws,” Kari repeated. “But keeping ourselves in these separate groups contributed to its flaws. When this war ends, Grace Loray cannot continue as it was before. The system that needs to be in place must be one ofunity—all of you must be represented. We cannot fight this war or lead this island separately. That includes the raider syndicates as well as any whoaren’traiders, as well as any who are more Argridian than Grace Lorayan, or who worship the Pious God, or who hold to a different deity. We are either together or ruined.”
