“Sure,” Desi drawled, staring at him half-lidded. “I have to go. Jonah is waiting for me. Just…don’t be stupid today. This isn’t about you or your vendettas or your pride. This is about the innocent eadi suffering every day.” She paused at my side, looking me directly in my eyes. “Think aboutthem,notyou.”
With that, she left, shutting the door quietly behind her. I wished I could say I knew I was doing it for the right reasons, but that would be a lie. I wanted to expose Maitoza. To kill my father. To carve out a world worthy of Nova. One where we could be happy. Each reason was more selfish than the last.
“What now?” Zura asked, her green eyes wide as she looked my way.
Nova felt like a blazing inferno beside me. A bright, guiding light. And, for the first time, I just wanted to give up control. “Nova?”
She blinked, her lips turning down. “Me? How would I know what’s next when this wasyourplan?”
“Use that brilliant mind of yours,” I muttered, grinning when she rolled her eyes. “You said it before. We know what the eadi want. Now how do we make use of this opportunity to give it to them? How do we do what Desi said and make this aboutthem?”
Whatever part of my impromptu speech resonated with her, I didn’t know. But what I did know was that her thinking face had arrived. She brought her fingers to her lips, gliding her nails across them and digging at the skin as she stared off into the distance.
“You two are terrifyingly alike, you know,” Cal said, watching her. I only beamed his way, reveling in the fact that I was anything like the perfect creature at my side. The true north on my compass.
Yep, I am officially a tortured, love-struck poet.
“Remember your plan you mentioned to the commander?” Nova eventually asked.
“Which one?” Had I ever mentioned any plans to that psycho?
“The one where we take districts west to east, matching the shaytan military’s movements?”
“Oh, yes.” Some plan that was. Maitoza didn’t even consider it. “What about it?”
Nova continued to stare off into the distance. “Well, who said we can’t do our own version of that? What if we help the eadi take back their village?”
“How do you propose we do that?” Quinn asked.
Nova scrunched her nose, still picking at her lips and now also twirling her necklace. “Well, sometimes violenceisthe answer. Like Priya said, we’re going to be some of the most powerful people there. We can do their dirty work.”
Priya sat up straighter, a sharp, feral smile lifting her cheeks into her eyes. “Glad you finally ditched that performative conscience, Tershetta.”
“Yeah, well, if I’m going to be deemed a villain, I might as well make it worth it.” She smiled back, bouncing slightly on her toes.
I’d never loved her more.
Chapter Forty-Three
Nova
“One of the grunts said she met a core yesterday. Everyone sounded so jealous. All I could think was that she was lucky to be alive. Who stumbles across a murderous beast and then fawns over it?”
-From the journal of Nova Tershetta, 9271 AS
Priya was right, she wasgreatat putting on cosmetics. She’d taken her time with each of us, painting our faces—reshaping them with shadows and highlights. She used kohl on my eyes to make them look less wide and a deeper shade of brown paired with a vibrant pale shade to thin out my nose, jaw, and cheeks.
After my turn with Priya had finished, Zura sat me down and combed through my curls, taking her time to part it into sections and braid it. Jonah showed up not long after we began, dropping off clothing, blank canvases nailed to wooden stakes, and a map with the location of the arrival area.
The others cycled through the same system as I did, getting their face and hair done before ending with picking clothes from the pile Jonah had brought. They were plain, tattered, and unassuming. Mostly in shades of brown and black, though Az snagged the only green top and brought it to me with a smile.
“It’s too big, but I figure a belt or two will fix that,” he said with a wink. I’d done just that. Throwing on a pair of black trousers with the oversized, long-sleeved green top and wrapping my tactile straps all around my torso. While it would never be considered fashionable, it would do.
By the time we were done, we all looked relatively unrecognizable. Az and I stood together as the others helped Caleb with signs, my skin tingling with nerves.
“Is this reckless?” I asked him, my fingers fidgeting at my sides.
Az looked down at me, pursing his lips. “I think it’s far less dangerous than delivering the haya. We can run at any time. Others will be there. Eyes won’t only be on us.”
