“Not trying to get involved,” Ephyra said, holding up her hands. “It’s just … you know. We’re kind of all counting on both of you.”

He let out a weary sigh. “He can be so infuriating. He just does whatever he wants, and he doesn’t care about how it affects anyone else.”

“I thought you two were…” Ephyra waved a hand vaguely.

It was just as well that she didn’t try to put words to what Jude and Anton were to each other. Jude certainly couldn’t. “I would do anything for him. And he won’t even tell me the truth.”

Ephyra narrowed her eyes. “Did you ever think maybe that’s the problem?”

The problem was that after everything they’d been through together, Anton still had to keep Jude at arm’s length and pretend that wasn’t what he was doing.

“Look, I know you didn’t ask for my advice,” Ephyra began haltingly. “And it’s not like I’m a bastion of healthy relationships. But I’ve sort of been where you are. Desperate to keep someone I love safe. Willing to sacrifice anything. And in the end, that was what…” She swallowed, seeming to struggle with the words. “That was what drove her away.”

“Your sister,” Jude said, understanding.

Ephyra wiped a tear with the back of her hand. “When Hector—when I killed Hector…”

Jude’s heart clenched with the reminder.

“Beru gave up on me,” Ephyra said, choking out the words. “She left, decided she’d rather die than…” She paused. “But before that, I knew the role I had forced her into was driving a wedge between us. I knew, and I ignored it because I thought if I just held on tightly enough…”

Jude tugged a hand through his hair. He understood. Too well.

“I guess what I’m saying is that whatever Anton’s hiding, whatever he won’t tell you, it’s probably because he’s scared,” she said. “Scared of what you would do if you knew.”

He thought about all the times Anton had told Jude, in words and deeds, that he didn’t need his protection, didn’t want it. When it came down to it, that was what had hurt Jude most. The idea that Anton was rejecting the only real thing he had to offer.

He hadn’t considered, until now, that the truth was something much worse. That Anton refused to allow Jude to protect him because he knew that he couldn’t. That whatever waited for them at the end of this journey, whatever answers the Prophets gave them, might require a sacrifice that Jude could not bear.