The sight made something twist painfully in August’s chest.
“There’s an elixir,” Felix tried again. “It gives nonwielders magic.” His hands curled into fists. “Why do they hate us, then? It’s not the magic they despise. So, what is it?”
Guilt stirred inside August as he searched for the right thing to say. He knew he was no better than the rest. Judging, fearing, hating.
Because they’re dangerous, he reminded himself.
But the wielders he’d met at The Raven’s Perch hadn’t seemed dangerous at all.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t.
How many wielders had been arrested in his lifetime? How many executed? Too many to count. The City Watch, the ministry, they wouldn’t punish innocents. Every wielder they condemned must have done something to warrant it. Maybe notallwielders were dangerous, but when the number was that high, distrust felt inevitable. Justified.
Felix’s moment of defeat was fleeting. He inhaled sharply, then stood. “I’m going to The Gilded Mortar. I need to find out where they get their supply.”
“Why?” asked August. “It’s awful, and you’re upset. I get that. But it’s just an elixir. It’s not actually hurting anything.”
Felix gave him a flat, unimpressed look. “Wielders vanish, and suddenly this new elixir appears? You don’t think that’s a bit too coincidental?” He brushed off his pants, determination hardening his face. “It’s connected. I know it is.”
“All the more reason to stay away. Nobody knows what you are. You’re safe.”
“Buttheyaren’t.”
Frustration swelled, then quickly crested into panic. Wielders were missing. Felix could be next. What if something happened? What if Felix didn’t come back?
“I don’t understand why you’d risk your life for this.”
Felix’s jaw clenched so hard that a muscle jumped along his cheek. “Of course you don’t understand. Youcan’t. They’re only wielders, right? Less than human.Trucagh.”
August recoiled at the accusation. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“Why should you care about anyone you see as beneath you?” His eyes narrowed as his gaze dragged over August. “You’re just another noble slumming it with the less fortunate to feel better about yourself.”
August blinked. “You think that’s why I like being around you?”
A heavy silence settled between them. At last, Felix’s expression crumpled, and he gave a small, dejected shrug. “Why else?”
The words lodged in August’s heart like thorns, and his breath caught at the pain.
“Because—” He faltered, throat suddenly dry. How could he explain what he didn’t even understand himself? Every part of him yearned to close the distance, to press his lips to Felix’s, to show him just how utterly, irrevocably crazy he was about him.
Instead, he forced out, “Because you’re my friend.”
The words were cowardly. Inadequate. And the miserable look on Felix’s face said as much.
A shrill, off-key voice drifted down the street, each warped note of the song punctuated by the sharp click of heels on the cobblestones.
At first, August assumed it was an anchored. He glared at the twitchy one, and it flickered once, then vanished. But anchored didn’t make noise when they walked.
A skeletal woman rounded the corner, and it only took a moment for her sunken, shadowed eyes to find them. The song fell away, and surprise flashed across her gaunt face.
“Oh, hello,” she crooned.
She held a fistful of her skirt in one hand, hitching it up so her thin legs were visible beneath, and she clutched a small hatchet in the other.
August’s blood ran cold. Why would someone be carrying a hatchet through the city?
“Can you believe he cut me off?” the woman asked, taking a slow step forward.“I’m his most loyal customer.” Another step. “I told him I’d pay. Eventually. He knows my family’s good for it.”
