The boy is harried and anxious. His eyes scan the trees uneasily. He’s worried I’ll come back. “The necklace!” he snaps and Mirren flinches. For that alone, I’ll kill him.
“No.”
All lingering traces of Mirren’s helplessness dissipates, replaced by that stubborn, fearless edge that sends sparks shooting through my veins. How is it that no one else sees the strong, willful creature that lives inside her? That’s been forged in fire and doesn’t relent when threatened.
The boy shoves his gun into the back of Mirren’s neck and the hair on my arms raises. I prowl closer, as his accomplice dances uncertainly next to him. “Luwei, let’s just go. Please.”
Her voice is apprehensive. She isn’t comfortable with thievery. They aren’t professionals. They’ve probably been driven to this by hunger. But that doesn’t discount them. Even the most docile of creatures can be pressed to violence when the life of someone they love is threatened.
“Quiet, Sura. There’s nothing else here worth anything.” The newly named Luwei presses the shotgun further into Mirren’s neck and I vow to shred him apart; to peel the skin from his bones and show him what happens in the Darkness when you leave an ugly mark on something that doesn’t belong to you. “Take the necklace off or I’ll take it off for you. Your choice.”
Maybe it’s something like fate that brought Mirren and I together. Maybe it’s the old magic, playing with us like puppets on a stage. But I think it’s the yawning tempest in us, the storm that never ceases, recognizing itself in one another. Because like whatever lives inside her, I also never relent.
I move like a spring squall over Nadjaa and let my knives fly.
* * *
Mirren
Shaw’s dagger strikes the tree next to Luwei’s head. The boy cries out in alarm and twists away from me exactly as Shaw planned.I do not miss.By the Covinus, his aim is alarming. Shaw is already on Luwei, one dagger aimed at his throat and another at his spine.
The girl, Sura, screams, all thoughts of robbing us abandoned the moment Luwei is in danger. Luwei struggles, but Shaw only presses the dagger further into his throat until a small trickle of blood spills over his blade. The sight has become disconcertingly familiar in the past few weeks and it’s one I hate with my whole being.
Luwei goes still. Sura holds up her own gun, pointing it wildly around the campsite. “Let him go!” Her voice is more of a plea than a demand and I hear something achingly familiar within it. Something that reminds me of Easton. “He doesn’t deserve to lose his life!”
Shaw’s face twists in a sardonic grin. The pale blue of his eyes sparks with malevolence. “I’m afraid we’re in disagreement there.” Though he is perfectly still, I know the brutal storm that rages inside him. The one ruthless in its fervor and undeniable in its thirst for justice. “Thieving scum. And probably murderous scum as well if I’d left him to it. I think that’s plenty of reasons to forfeit his life.”
Luwei’s eyes flash and his lower lip trembles. Now that my face is no longer planted in the dirt, I see that he’s young. Younger even than I. And terrified.
Sura raises her chin. “Take me if you demand payment.”
The way she screamed when Shaw attacked, as if the world would begin and end in Luwei’s death, echoes in my heart. The stakes are always so high in Ferusa. For the first time, I realize that the Darkness spoken about isn’t part of the curse; it isn’t some magical force that twists souls and turns them black—it’s the reality of living on the verge of brutal destruction at every moment that shapes people into what they are. And if I grew up here, constantly balanced on the edge of hunger and death, I would be the same.
“It should be my life in forfeit. He only stole because I was starving. Take me.”
Sura glances at Luwei and love shines in her eyes. He’s her brother, I realize with a start. Doing whatever needed to be done to protect his sister. Surely, even Shaw can respect that.
“He’s the one who gave the orders, who threatened our lives. I think we’ll see if Luwei here has enough blood to repay what he was trying to steal.” Shaw’s voice is so casual, it verges on cruel.
“Shaw, no.”
His gaze flicks to me and there’s nothing of the boy who tended gently to my wounds and lamented the violence he’s committed. There is only the cool, unfeeling mask of the man who abducted me with no contrition. He examines me, detached and appraising.
Sura’s hood has fallen back, revealing brown skin and high cheek bones and a mouth that would be beautiful if it wasn’t wane with malnutrition. “We have some extra from our dinner. Would you like some?” I ask her gently.
She eyes me warily, determining if I’m somehow trying to trick her. The barrel of her gun drops slightly. I motion to the fire where the remainder of our rabbit meat sits, skewered and tender. Sura’s tongue darts out, licking her lips, but her eyes flash uncertainly to her brother.
Luwei breathes heavily against Shaw’s knife, watching me with wide eyes. My heart cries out for them both, to be so suspicious of an offer of kindness. “Please, you can both eat.”
Her worried gaze flicks to Shaw, who hasn’t taken his eyes off me. “If they eat, we will go without on the journey tomorrow.” His voice is neutral but I’ve no doubt tomorrow’s journey will be filled with a lecture on my naivete. I don’t care. I won’t let them starve.
I nod. “I know. Let him go.”
Shaw doesn’t move, a muscle working in his jaw. “He threatened to hurt you. He threatened to shoot you. I won’t let him go freely.”
I glare at him. “You actuallydidshoot me. Let him go, Shaw.”
He’s still for so long that I worry he may kill the boy just to spite me. Finally, he purses his lips and removes his knife from Luwei’s throat. He shoves the younger boy away from him without taking his eyes off me. Luwei runs to Sura, clasping her to him in a desperate hug. They murmur to each other, tears spilling over cheeks and hands searching faces for any sign of hurt. Longing surges through me. I miss my brother so much and I will never be allowed to show him like that.
