“You wouldn’t have signed me. I honestly thought they would stop at the Khairian border. I’m not all that important.”

“Aren’t you? What was her name? Who was she?”

“Just… I don’t know. She was just…”

“Don’t fuck with me, Ahmed. I’m not in the mood. Tell me who she was.”

“Just another officer. They were all the same to me.”

“Did you kill all of them?”

“No.”

“Did you fuck all of them?”

Ahmed turned away.

Nyx half thought to drive a knife through his skull herself. Why not? Why not just leave another long line of bodies out behind her in the desert? She had a powerful magician in Safiyah. But Safiyah worked for herself. Nyx expected to wake one morning and find out she’d fucked off into the desert somewhere, or just ridden some giant arthropod out. No, she needed desperate people. Desperate people could be counted on to act consistently. Bel dames or no, Ahmed needed her. In fact, with bel dames after him, he needed her more.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

Nyx sighed. She was so goddamn tired. She hadn’t been this goddamn tired in a long time. She missed Radeyah. Suddenly. Powerfully. But there were no nice girls for people like Nyx. Nobody sitting up waiting for them. She knew that when she left. Knew she was giving it all up. But what choice did she have? Nyx just wished that she could figure out solutions that had lower body counts.

“Nyx?”

She had zoned out. A dangerous thing. She started, and saw Ahmed pointing down toward Bomani. There was a dark figure there, walking in the crimson moonlight.

Nyx motioned for them all to flatten themselves on the ground. The figure gazed up, straight at where Nyx lay. She knew him.

“It’s Rhys,” Nyx said.

“I’m here to bring you back,” Rhys said. He wore a deep violet burnous, organic.

“Good luck with that,” Ahmed said, and leveled a gun at him.

Nyx raised her brows.

Rhys took the measure of him with one glance. “I’m a faster draw. And she isn’t worth it.”

“Hold on,” Nyx said.

Ahmed’s expression was dark. “He’s Chenjan. What does it matter?”

“I said hold.”

Ahmed didn’t lower the gun.

“What are you doing here?” Nyx asked Rhys.

“I told you. I’m bringing you back. I may be a poor magician, but I have some experience tracking you with hornets. Go if you want. But I’ll find you.”

“The red desert, Rhys. Why are you here?”

He looked at Ahmed and the gun again. “It’s a shame about your magician.”

“What?”

The expression on Rhys’s face then was something Nyx recognized. Some dark thing from many dark nights in back alleys, tracking bounties. Rhys was a fast draw. He had a good killing shot.