“I know you think we’re wrong,” Zekia said. “But we just want the Crafters to be okay again. Like before the war. Like better than before. You have to want that too, now you know you’re like us. Don’t you?”

Wesley wasn’t sure what he wanted right now, except to get out of this place and take her with him. He needed to see the sun and feel the air on his face and have Tavia glare at him like he was a huge bastard.

It was the only way to get any kind of damn clarity.

“Kid,” he said. “Let me get you out of here. I can take you back to your family and we can fix all of this. We can go to the forest and—”

“Be quiet!” Zekia snapped. “You can’t talk about that place here.”

“Then let’s go and talk about it somewhere far away from here,” he said.

Zekia’s smile faded and she stood up slowly from the floor, the damp dripping from her dress.

“You’re not going anywhere,” she said.

“Kid—”

“No!” she yelled, shaking her head wildly. “You can’t go. I won’t let you leave.”

Wesley sighed.

Thing was, he already knew how to escape. He’d been planning it since the moment they took him, going over every possible scenario. The problem had never been that he couldn’t go, but that he didn’t want to go without Zekia.

The chains weren’t keeping Wesley prisoner; she was.

Even now, she was still the ghost inside his mind, making him second-guess every decision.

She was like this because of him.

She was with Ashwood because of him.

Wesley couldn’t leave her behind again, like he had done all those years ago, when he’d thought being an underboss was worth any sacrifice.

He couldn’t go back to Tavia and Saxony and Karam without her.

Zekia deserved a chance.

At the very least, Wesley owed her that.

At the very least, he had to try.

6

KARAM

Karam wiped the blood from her knife.

“Again,” she said.

Tavia opened her mouth in outrage, nursing the minor flesh wound on her shoulder. She really was very dramatic at times.

“You’re enjoying this way too much,” Tavia said.

Karam pocketed her knife as a show of peace. “Believe me, I take little pleasure in trying to school someone with no athletic skill.”

Tavia’s eyes narrowed in the beginnings of a glare, though there wasn’t much heart behind it. “I think I’m offended,” she said. “I’ll have you know that I once scaled a building.”

“Which you got pushed out of.”

“I stole a backpack full of magic from Rishiya’s best busker.”

“And then got chased by his friends so I had to rescue you.”

“I faced Dante Ashwood and survived,” Tavia said, grinning proudly, her chin aloft.

Karam raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “We all did that.”