Vex lowered himself to the deck next to her. “Are you hungry? There were rations—”
“No, I’m fine.” Though she couldn’t remember when last she had eaten. She glanced at him, and softness tapped on her mind. “Thank you, though,” she added.
Vex half smiled, his mouth open as though another question waited beyond his lips. But he shook his head, clearing his throat. “Your mother is on the largest getaway boat, one of Nathaniel Blaise’s paddlewheels. Uh—Blaise is the Emerdian raider Head. They helped us get you out.” His voice came fast and forced, trying to fill the silence. “We’ll meet up with them in Port Mesi-Teab. At least, that’s the plan, unless it’s changed. But I don’t know why it would have. But—wait, that’s where we’re going, did you know that? To Port Mesi-Teab. Teo’s there. He’ll be damnexcited to see you. Anyway, we’ll join up with your mother there and make sure everyone’s all right—”
He stopped. Lu didn’t move, and he dropped his eye from her face to her lap, where his focus stayed as he licked his lips and asked, his voice fragile, “Are you? All right, I mean. What the hell am I saying—of course you’re not all right.Damn it. God, Lu, I’m sorry. I—”
“You’resorry?” Lu gasped the words.
Vex looked up at her. “Well, yeah. I left you on Elazar’s ship to begin with. I thought... I thought Milo killed you. I shouldn’t have believed it. I should’ve torn this island apart to—”
“You aren’t furious with me?”
Vex cracked a laugh. “Why in the Pious God’s hell would I be furious with you?”
A million reasons slammed into Lu. She clenched her hands in her lap and before she could speak, Vex covered her fists with his palm, warm and soft.
“You’re part of my crew,” he told her. The urgency with which he spoke, passion vibrant on his face—it stunned her silent. “You’re family. Whatever you have to deal with, whatever happened to you, you won’t go through it alone.”
“You know what I did during the war.” Her voice shook. “And you know—I did those things forArgrid. For my father. I’ve hurt this island. You know what sort of monster I am—”
“I know what sort ofpersonyou are. You’re strong and loyal and brave—”
“I killed people!” Lu fought to keep her voice low, not wanting to draw attention, wanting to be as small as possible. “My father made me a traitor to Grace Loray. I’m not—”
“—and reckless and maddening and breathtaking, and I’ve missed you every moment since I thought you were dead.”
Lu stopped. Vex pried one of her fists apart to nestle his fingers beside hers.
She looked at their clasped hands, bearing down on her last shreds of resolve.
“I’ve missed you,” Vex repeated. “Watching Milo stab you and leaving you on that ship—it was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I didn’t realize how much pain I was in until I saw you in that prison, and it all vanished.” He bent closer, beseeching. “Being part of someone’s family doesn’t come and go based on behavior. Hell, if it were, Nay, Edda, and I never would’ve lasted. No matter what you do or have done or might think you’re responsible for, we’re in this together now. Forever.”
A sob tore up from Lu’s gut. She covered her eyes with her free hand and hunched over, weeping.
Vex’s hand untangled from hers, but only so he could pull her into his chest. When he’d touched her before, he had been hesitant, as though he feared breaking her—but now, his arms clamped around her, a resolute hold on the boat’s deck.
“We’re going to be okay,” he told her, his hair brushing her cheek. “Lu, I swear to you—we’re going to be okay. We’ve both survived too much to be destroyed.”
Lu wasn’t sure she believed him, but the comfort he offered was seductive. She allowed herself to feel it, the curve of his body around her, the tremor of the taut muscles in his forearm.
She had missed him, too. She had missed what they might have been. She had missed how he saw her, all those words he said—strong,loyal,brave,reckless,breathtaking—and she had missed the way she thought she might be those things when she was around him.
Vex held her and whispered promises in her ear, and she memorized the warmth of his breath on her skin.
Dirty faces and gaunt eyes crowded Ben’s steamboat. An escape he owed to the Emerdian and Tuncian raider syndicates—as well as Kari Andreu. A councilmember, and Lu’s mother.
The raiders were reluctant to tell Ben even that much. He and Gunnar helped in any way they could—escorting people who struggled to find seating, passing out canteens of fresh water, taking quick breaks for themselves in the cramped washroom. Ben was careful to speak in the Grace Lorayan dialect and mask his accent, but the raiders recognized him as Argridian regardless. Had they recognized him as the Crown Prince, too? Pierce had attacked him inthe prison for being Argridian—what would they do to Benat Gallego?
Hours out of Port Camden, the raiders finally gave in to Ben’s questions about their plan. But they spoke while swinging blades, twirling the steel with wickedness in their eyes.
They were heading for Tuncian syndicate territory—the raider group that had started, hundreds of years ago, with the purpose of defending Tuncian immigrants from Argrid’s cleansing of the island. And deep in Port Mesi-Teab sat a sanctuary that hid people who otherwise might have been imprisoned, or who needed help.
“Port Mesi-Teab?” Ben asked.
“Our main city. I’m surprised the prince doesn’t know that,” one of the raiders said. Ben jolted. They had recognized him after all. “Though I guess the cleansing of Tuncian whores isn’t considered worthy news to Argrid’s upper reaches.”
Ben’s eyes widened at the wordwhores.The raider grinned and tapped a tattoo on his cheek, two vertical dots above two horizontal. “Four gods. Fourtruegods—Order, Chaos, Rebirth, and Death—who could destroy your one flimsy god of piety with a flick of their hands.”
