Nyx had them camp just inside the filter under the decaying roof of an abandoned outbuilding, already half reclaimed by the wood. Ras Tiegan filters were less effective than Nasheenian ones. They permitted everything through but the worst of the bugs. The one surrounding this city was especially bad, and Nyx found a massive, cancerous hole in it as soon as they got close. They were exhausted, and in no shape for a fight. Safiyah said she could track Raine with hornets from now on, so Nyx permitted them all six hours of sleep. It turned out the sun was going down. Wherever they were taking Raine, somewhere in the city was the likely destination.

“You know where we are?” Nyx asked Isabet.

She shook her head, and said in her terrible Nasheenian. “Get closer. To see.”

“Not tonight,” Nyx said. They could ask the locals in good time.

Ahmed volunteered for first watch, but Nyx took it. Safiyah set out a hornet swarm. “Just a little extra protection,” she said, and winked.

Nyx did not feel safer. She had three magicians and some rich Ras Tiegan kid. It meant she was the primary muscle. The thought depressed her.

She sat at the edge of the camp. They dared not light a fire. It was just eating and sleeping. No one took off their weapons.

After a time, Rhys joined her. They sat in silence, staring into the jungle beyond the filter.

Finally, she said, “You want to come back with me, when this is over?”

Rhys leaned forward. He sighed. “My first duty is to my family.”

“Sure. And they aren’t here. So what’s the harm?”

“Do you really have to ask that?”

“Yeah. You’ll ask it soon enough. Either while I’m here or when I’m gone.”

“Always so certain of yourself.”

“Should I be anything else? Tell me you don’t want to come with me, if it’s so easy.”

“It’s not that.”

“What, then?”

“I’m married, Nyx.”

“I fuck a lot of people too.”

Rhys snorted. He started rolling a cigarette.

“Filthy habit,” she said.

“That’s what my wife says.”

That made her laugh. It hurt to laugh. She pressed a hand to her chest, wondering if and when she’d bruised something.

“How is it you know exactly how far to push?” he said. He lit the cigarette, offered her a pull.

She accepted.

He said, “You know you can always take it far enough to get me to walk off. Is that what you always want? You like to watch me walk off? Because that’s what happens when you treat people this way, Nyx. Maybe no one else will say it, but I will. You treat us like tools and things. It’s why I loathed every moment in those six years I was on your team.”

“I thought it was all the sex and liquor and—”