Both Parkers glared now, but Elysia wiped her eyes. “Anything else anyone needs to share?”
A guilty look flashed across Beatriz’s face, and Elysia gaped. “Are you serious? There’s more?”
Jessa leaned back against the bar and crossed her ankles. “Ask her to tell you more about the Market.”
“Beatriz,” Elysia said warningly. Her magic was already stretching, though. Cloaking itself around Beatriz, attempting in vain to suss out all her secrets without a tenth of the power she needed to do so. Even so, a few telling images flashed through her mind. Disbelief colored her voice. “Drugs, alcohol, gambling—those are one thing. You’re dealing in magical weapons? Who would you even sell them to? And what for?”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she tensed in knowing, leveling her sister with a parental stare. She’d literally introduced Beatriz to Gage. The heir to a sprawling criminal empire who was the only one of his family forced to maintain his reign without magic.
“Figured it out, didn’t you? It’s all for the cause though. Almost. Some of it’s just for money.” Beatriz shrugged as if they couldn’t all be saints.
Elysia took a deep breath, mumbling at the floor. “I regret coming here. I thought it would help and it didn’t. It really didn’t.”
Beatriz polished off the rest of her drink. “Personally, I feelgreat. So fresh, so open.”
Jessa made a disgruntled noise and pointed a dish towel at her. “We need to up our weapons supply.”
“Need more money for that.”
Elysia cast her gaze between them. “You’re supplying rebels with weapons.”
Jessa narrowed her eyes at Beatriz. “She’s stingy enough about it.”
“I’vetoldyou—I can’t just be giving everything away for free. I have a business to maintain!”
“People don’t need downers and make-believe trips! They need healing tinctures and a way to defend themselves!”
“Those drugs are what’s funding your bullshit ragtag crew of misfits, so maybe we don’t bite the hand that feeds us, huh?”
Sarcasm fell heavily from Elysia’s mouth. “There’s nothing like your friends running an entire illegal operation behind your back for the gods know how long.”
Jessa didn’t bother to look chastised. “You had enough to deal with. The partnership is still new—we just used to buy from her.”
“What she means to say is they’d be lost without me.” Beatriz looked down at Jessa pompously.
An easy smile touched Jessa’s full lips. “Have I ever mentioned what my gift is?”
“No.” Beatriz made a face like she didn’t give a fuck and rattled her glass.
Jessa leaned across the bar, her fingers tiptoeing up Triz’s chest. “I can control pressure. Have you ever seen a human explode?”
Beatriz turned an unpleasant shade of white and leaned away, her voice faint. “Understood.”
Elysia was both impressed and aghast. “Even here in Kava?”
“Magic here is so touchy. I never know if I’m going to give someone a nice, threatening squeeze or blow their lungs apart.”
Both sisters went silent, taking this in. No wonder people were so scared of Jessa. Forget her studded plank, she’d likely blown someone up and everyone was too terrified to ever mention it again.
Suddenly, the door flew open, and a man staggered in, leering at all three of them. “How much?”
Jessa immediately grabbed her plank. “Bar’s closed.”
His leer only grew. “I wasn’t asking for a drink.”
Beatriz made a face of disgust. “As if one of us would even look at your shriveled, smelly?—”
“Please don’t finish that sentence.” Elysia watched the man stumble closer, his hand reaching for what was likely a dagger.
