“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.

Now both were gone.

Now everything seemed wrong.

“Keep acting like this and you will push everyone away,” Karam continued.

“There are more important things than Saxony’s feelings or my popularity,” Tavia said. “If we don’t stop Ashwood from destroying Creije, he’ll trample the other eight cities too, and then spread the Loj elixir across Uskhanya. And after our realm is gone, he won’t stop there. Maybe he’ll go for your realm next.”

“So you team up with any crook you can?”

“Casim isn’t just a crook, Karam, he’s an underboss. Buskers across the city will listen to him and he could even convince the other underbosses to give us buskers from their cities. Then we’ll have the numbers to really give Ashwood a run for his money.”

“And you can save Wesley,” Karam said.

Tavia didn’t deny it.

What was so wrong with wanting to save her oldest friend and the only home either of them had ever known? It didn’t make her a bad person, just because every motive she had wasn’t selfless.

“I understand that you want him back,” Karam said. “But the way that you are doing things is—”