“You killed for your parents’ vision, Anji. Running was cowardly. The act was ill-advised and ill-informed, but not without reason. Not without passion. You believed in that vision then, and you believe in it now. You and I both know you won’t breathe a word. Besides, look at me. We both know that by the time we’ve turned you in, I won’t be in a state to reap any consequences for you telling anyone. I’ll just be another Dredger living in the slums, likely hunted down and slaughtered without anyone knowing who I was.”

“But you’re leading me to slaughter!” Anji’s words rang off the empty tower walls. “You know about my parents. We’re on the same side!”

Kit sighed, her shoulders dropping. “I have to do it, Anji. I find this all … distasteful, yes, but you signed your death warrant the moment you put that blade to Rolandrian’s throat. We have similar goals, perhaps, but you’re forgetting your role in all this. The role you put yourself into. If you’re willing to kill for a cause, you should be ready to die for one too.”

Anji stared across the darkened space, lips pressed hard together. A thousand retorts flitted through her head, but they all led to the same place.

Kit opened her mouth to say more, but lapsed into a fit of coughs again, bent double with the force. She spat onto the stone, fished out a vial of Rail, and tipped its remaining contents onto the flat of her hand, then snorted up the sizable mound of powder. Nostrils flaring, she tilted her head back, sniffing hard, and wiped at her eyes.

“Don’t you need to sleep?” said Anji.

“After everything I’ve told you?” said Kit, letting the vial clatter to the floor. She leveled a look at Anji. “I don’t think so.”

“You didn’t have to tell me anything,” said Anji, avoiding the instinct to deny the Hawk’s unspoken accusation.

Kit shrugged. “No,” was all she said.

Anji searched for something else to say, some final argument that would get her out of this corner. But nothing came. She pulled her coat tight and sank to her side, favoring her injured hand. Jared had treated the wounds better than she could have expected, but the effects of the salve had begun wearing off. The pain had come back. She turned her back to the Hawk and closed her eyes, her thoughts swirling like the rain outside.

Chapter 34

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