Tavia wanted to feel relief at that, but she knew she couldn’t. It didn’t matter if Nolan had sold only a few elixirs in Rishiya and if no other buskers in the city had their hands on it yet, because buskers across the whole of the realm, from Kythnu to the government city of Yejlath, had backpacks full of the stuff.

The elixir was spreading like an infection and they didn’t have a cure.

It wasn’t coming: It was here already.

“Whether you kill me or not, you’re still going to lose,” Nolan said.

Tavia stared down at the bleeding busker.

She put away her knife and got Wesley’s gun back out from her belt loop.

The buskers wanted her to kill Nolan; they expected her to. She’d gotten all she needed from him and he was nothing if not a liability. She couldn’t trust him to stay here and she couldn’t let him back out on the streets now that he knew where their rebellion was.

They have to fear me, she thought. That’s the only way they’ll follow me.

Tavia wasn’t good at inspirational speeches like Saxony and she didn’t have that air about her that made people flock to her side like Wesley did. All Tavia had was a prisoner and Wesley’s gun.

“I thought your side was all about peace,” Nolan said. “Are you really going to kill me here?”

The look in his eyes said that he truly didn’t know what Tavia was capable of. And of course he couldn’t, because she didn’t know either.

Tavia had always thought she was above the buskers and the likes of anyone who patrolled Creije and ruined lives because they wanted to rise to the top. She’d only ever wanted to escape and find a family in her home realm of Volo. But she could see now, how someone could get lost in this maze of power.

How easy it was to forget yourself when so many people had their eyes on you.

“What are you doing?”

Tavia all but jumped out of her skin at the sound of the new voice so close to her ear. She turned with wide eyes to see Karam.

“Gods damn it,” Tavia said in a hard voice. “You scared me to death.”

She pressed her free hand to her chest to see if her heart was still beating, because she was sure it had stopped.

“You seem pretty alive to me,” Karam said.

Tavia gave her a sullen look. “What are you doing out of bed and wandering around at this time of night?”

“I was looking for you.”

“That’s sweet,” Tavia said. “But I’m a little busy right now. Let’s talk later.”

Karam looked at the bloody Nolan. “Torturing a new prisoner?” she asked.