Lu looked at her. “No. But Tom is the one person in Elazar’s employ who might be able to make permanent magic for him. If Elazar is moving forward with his plans, it could be because Tom has been successful. We need to know—and we need to stop him.”
A murderous smile unfurled on Rosalia’s face. “Why didn’t you say that from the start?”
Nayeli huffed. “Notkill him. Tom is Lu’s father. We’ll just—steal his stores of magic to delay his progress?”
She waited for Lu’s confirmation.
Kill him. Tom is Lu’s father.Had that been what Lu meant? She needed to stop Tom. She didn’t know far she would have to go to do that.
“We’ll steal his magic. Or destroy it,” Lu said. “Whatever we have to do to end this.”
Nayeli gaped.
Rosalia hooted with laughter. “Gloria, this councilmember’s daughter is more raider than anyone on Vex’s sorry excuse for a crew. Seems he hasn’t had a chance to turn her soft yet.”
“No,” Nayeli said. “You think that because you couldn’t make himhardat all.”
Rosalia howled again. Lu gawked at Nayeli.
“Do you want to bring that up?” Rosalia tipped her head to the side. “I thought our darling Lu here was mezzochi’s next conquest.”
Nayeli cursed in Thuti, a spectacular list of things she would do to Rosalia with her knife. Rosalia held her hands up but grinned—it was clear she’d been intending to hit this nerve.
Lu squinted. “Mezzochi?”
“You don’t speak Grozdan?” Rosalia’s grin went malicious. “Once Vex’s taken you to bed, ask him what it means. Gloria, I wish I could see the look on his face!”
Nayeli spat at Rosalia’s feet. The blood drained out of Lu’s extremities. Some part of her said she should feel jealous, as was Rosalia’s intention. But the image she suggested—being in bed with Vex—was such a far-off concept that Lu had no idea how to respond.
Lu spun to the firepit. “I need to finish what I’m working on,” she told Rosalia over her shoulder. “But I want to leave as soon as possible.”
“With pleasure.” Rosalia’s voice came with the lilt of a venomous smile. The door to the shack opened and closed behind her.
“Lu,” Nayeli said the moment they were alone again. “You don’t want to think this through more? Rosalia—even Nate and Pierce—they’d kill Tom without a second thought. Maybe you should lay out some goals? Tell them where the line is?”
The tonic over the coals had cooked down enough; Lu could add a few more ingredients and let it sit while they—
Nayeli grabbed her arm. Lu swung into it, pressing close in a swell of rage.
“I have underestimated my father all my life,” Lu said. “I can’t lay out rules about what we should or shouldn’t do, because I knownothingabout what he is capable of. If we have to—” Her voice caught. “We have to stop him. I can’t say what that means.”
A sheen of sweat glistened across Nayeli’s cheeks, and her lips parted with a long, soft exhale. “This isn’t some nameless defensor. This is yourfather. And what if Elazar is in Fort Chastity too? Shouldn’t we coordinate this with Kari and Fatemah? Shit, Lu.” Nayeli ripped back and tore her fingers through her wild curls. “Look what you’re doing. You’re makingmethe gods-damned voice of caution.”
“Don’t caution me, then. Act.” Lu’s lungs were leaden, her horror twisting into excruciating determination. “This isn’t about the bigger war. This is one mission. One task. Then I’ll come back here and make permanent magic, and we’ll save the island. But for now—” She stepped closer, vibrating with self-hatred and fear. “Help me do this reckless thing.”
Three nights after the meeting in the tenement office, the sun was starting to set, and Vex saw Fort Chastity through the narrow gaps between Port Mesi-Teab’s buildings.
Kari and Fatemah’s scouts had heard that Elazar’s coming light would happen that night, in Fort Chastity. On the deck of this Tuncian steamboat, Ben, Gunnar, and Edda huddled in the shadow of the pilothouse. But when Vex perked up, straightening under the thick weave of his cloak, the rest of them twisted to look. And hardened.
“Two minutes,” said a voice from the pilothouse—Mani, the only person Vex had ever seen beat Cansu in a sword ring, was one of the two raiders Fatemah had sent off with them to infiltrate Fort Chastity. Not on theRapid Meander, again.“Tuncian mission; Tuncian craft,”Mani had said, and forced them onto this tiny dollop of a boat. The other raider, Zey, was coming up from monitoring the engine, the trapdoor closing without a sound behind him.
Despite this crappy little boat, Vex was running a mission with Ben across from him, Edda next to him. It was almost perfect.
He looked at Ben and tried a smile. It burst onto his face stronger than he’d thought—they were sailing into a dangerous mission, after all—but Ben relented with a smile back, shaking his head on a muffled laugh like he understood the reason for Vex’s joy.
Getting Ben back had clicked a piece of Vex’s soul into place. But Nayeli and Lu not being there chipped off an equally large piece.
Vex’s smile flickered.
