“Yeah,” Tavia said. “I wasn’t kidding when I said you looked like crap.”

Karam tried for a laugh, but she was aching too much, both inside and out.

“Actually, I need a moment to speak to Tavia alone,” Karam said.

“Tavia?” Saxony asked. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Tavia said. “Me?”

Karam nodded. “It is important.”

“Okay,” Saxony said, though Karam could tell she was confused.

Karam wanted nothing more than to fall asleep in her arms and to tell her how much she had missed her, but Tavia needed to know about the vision Karam had seen first, and telling someone they were going to die required privacy.

“I’ll help Wesley take care of Arjun,” Saxony said. “We’ll fill you in on everything that’s happened later.”

She kissed Karam’s cheek softly and followed after the others, until Karam was left alone with a baffled Tavia.

“I have to tell you something,” Karam said. “Arjun used an extraction on one of our attackers and it showed us a vision.”

She wasn’t sure how to phrase the next part with any kind of tact. So she simply looked at Tavia and said, “Zekia is going to kill you.”

Tavia took a moment to stare blankly and then swallowed and said, “Kill me? Are you sure?”

Karam nodded.

“When?”

She was taking it better than Karam had expected.

“I do not know,” Karam said. “We were on a bridge somewhere. I think it might have been in Creije.”

“What a homecoming,” Tavia said.

She bit her lip, as though she didn’t know what else to do.

“I am sorry,” Karam said.

What else could she say? She could promise to keep Tavia safe, but those words would sound so hollow right now.

“Don’t tell Wesley.”

“What?”

“Don’t tell him,” Tavia said again. “He thinks he can get through to Zekia and if he finds out about this, then he’ll stop trying. We can’t let him do that.”

“And he will lock you up in a room made of cushions,” Karam agreed. “He will not let you go anywhere near Ashwood or Zekia.”

“Exactly,” Tavia said. “Which is why he can’t know.”

“Understood. But when Saxony finds out—”

“You can’t tell her, either.”

“I am not lying to Saxony,” Karam said.

Tavia’s eyes were firm. “Yes, you are,” she said. “You know as well as I do that she can never find out. That’s why you asked to speak to me alone.”

Karam couldn’t deny the truth.

They didn’t know how Wesley would react with Tavia’s life on the line, and as much as Karam hated to admit it, Saxony couldn’t be trusted when it came to her sister. She had a history of refusing to see the worst in Zekia, and if it came down to her sister’s life or her friend’s, Karam wasn’t sure who Saxony would choose.