And there it was.
Maybe there were those who might have feared Casim.
But Casim feared Wesley.
And Tavia could use that.
“Wesley isn’t here,” she said. “For now. But do you really think that the Kingpin can hold him for long, or that he’s not exactly where he wants to be? Dante Ashwood is powerful, but Wesley is Wesley, and when he gets back, he’ll come to me asking for a report on who was too scared to do what had to be done. He’ll want to know his enemies.”
Casim’s eyes widened a fraction, but he kept his game face on for the most part, which Tavia had to give him credit for. Still, the fear was there and she had seen the slip of it. She had been the one to cause it.
Wesley would be proud of her for that, wouldn’t he?
“Fine,” Casim said. “I’ll send you my buskers and I’ll talk to the other underbosses about where their loyalties lie. Maybe I can convince some of them to help without getting myself killed for treason. But if I’m going to risk my life, then I want something in return.”
Tavia didn’t like where this was going. Deals with underbosses never went well and it was always better to stick to threats instead. That’s what Wesley would have done.
“I want Wesley himself to give me his protection,” Casim said.”I want his promise that he’ll ensure my safety and reward me for my loyalty after all is said and done.”
Tavia felt a headache coming on.
She couldn’t ensure Casim’s safety any more than she could ensure her own, or that of her friends. The plan had always been for Wesley to take Ashwood’s place, because he was the one who could make real change and Tavia knew that everything he’d do, even the awful stuff she’d hate, would be in the best interests of Creije and the rest of the realm. But when he came back, though he’d stand by Tavia and the others, the last priority on his list would be ensuring the safety of another underboss.
Casim didn’t need to hear that right now though. He needed to hear that he was safe.
“Of course you’ll have protection,” Tavia said. “By Wesley himself. It goes without saying.”
She pictured Wesley’s face when he got back and heard about what she’d done. Whether he’d be mad, or just laugh at the idea of being a bodyguard.
Casim smiled. “I’ll be in touch. Look out for my truce.”
And then he disappeared, into the fire and into the wind, leaving only the stale stench of their alliance in the air.
“What are you doing?”
Saxony’s voice was unmistakable.
Tavia turned to see her friend, brows knotted together, and Karam by her side, surveying the fire with a neutral look, like she was still deciding what the right reaction should be.
“Was that who I think it was?” Saxony asked, walking into the clearing. “Did you just make some kind of a deal with an underboss?”
Tavia didn’t like how scolding Saxony’s voice sounded, like Tavia was a kid in need of punishing for going against what the grown-ups wanted.
“You’re making a deal with Ashwood’s henchmen now? Tavia, you can’t trust them.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Tavia said. “Creije is on the line, Ashwood is conquering districts, and I’m not going to let my home fall to ashes. We need to start thinking of a plan to get Wesley some help before it’s too late.”
“So this is less about Creije and more about your boyfriend,” Saxony said.
Tavia’s eyes narrowed.
It was about all the people the alliance could save. She didn’t contact Casim just for Wesley; she did it because every night all she could picture were the innocents in her city, injected with the Loj over and over until Ashwood had sunk his claws in deep enough to leave marks that would never fade.
She pictured her mother, whispering at shadows as the magic slowly ate away her mind.
Can you see them now, ciolo? she always whispered. My ghosts.
“Saxony,” Karam said, stepping in between them like she could sense a battle on the horizon. “Perhaps we should talk about this another time. You two are both—”
“You might not like Wesley,” Tavia interrupted. “But you should know that having him as an enemy would be a mistake.”
“I can handle Wesley,” Saxony said.
“You’ll handle him? He’s on our side.”
“Speaking of our side, if we’re all on the same team, then why are you going behind my back?”
Tavia all but scoffed. “Weird how much that hurts, isn’t it?”
Saxony’s jaw clenched and the air between them grew thick with the rising sun.
“You both must take a breath and remember our mission,” Karam said. “We cannot tear ourselves apart when our foes are waiting to do just that.”
Tavia looked to Karam. She wasn’t sure when the warrior had become the peacemaker, tying Tavia to her old friend in an awful, obligatory way that she still couldn’t get used to.
“We need to come together to find a solution to this war,” Karam said. “Tavia is right in saying that Wesley is an asset and that the underboss of Rishiya can provide us with more soldiers.”
“I know that,” Saxony said. “But we need Crafters to win this war and we can’t do it without my amja’s help. I just need time to convince her. And once I do, we can fight the Kingpin and save Zekia and—”
“So Zekia is worth saving, but not Wesley,” Tavia said. “She can be redeemed, but anyone you don’t care about can go straight to the fire-gates?”
Saxony’s eyes tensed and Tavia didn’t miss the flicker of hurt that crossed her friend’s face. “That isn’t what I said.”
The wind breezed warmer on Tavia’s cheeks and she knew that the change in the air wasn’t just from the sun anymore, but from Saxony’s magic. Her Crafter powers were like a wildfire, buried skin-deep, ready to rise at any moment.
“What you say and do are two different things,” Tavia said. “Who’s to say which side of your personality we can trust today?”
Saxony didn’t say anything in response, and whether that was because there was nothing she could say, or because she knew Tavia wouldn’t listen anyway, it didn’t matter. Saxony turned without another word and headed back into the camp in the space of a few blinks, leaving Tavia alone with Karam.
“You need to stop punishing her,” Karam said. “We are not enemies here.”
Tavia wasn’t so sure.
She could forgive a lot of things, but Saxony’s actions had nearly gotten them killed at the train station when they tried to escape Creije. Her family had attacked them in Granka, and Saxony’s letters had led the Kingpin straight to Asees and Arjun’s Kin. And then there was that whole matter of Saxony’s little sister kidnapping Wesley from right under their noses.
It wasn’t enough that Ashwood had murdered Tavia’s mother with magical experiments, but now he’d taken the one person she had left who—
Tavia swallowed.
It’s okay, ciolo, her mother’s voice whispered.
Tavia had thought that as an orphan she knew what it was to be alone, but she was wrong. In the span of no time at all, she had lost her underboss, her home, and her best friend. Wesley had always been there for her to rely on, even if she never wanted it, and Saxony had always been a source of light and friendship in a city she took for granted.