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Back Rapture
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. 1.
  5. 2.
  6. 3.
  7. 4.
  8. 5.
  9. 6.
  10. 7.
  11. 8.
  12. 9.
  13. 10.
  14. 11.
  15. 12.
  16. 13.
  17. 14.
  18. 15.
  19. 16.
  20. 17.
  21. 18.
  22. 19.
  23. 20.
  24. 21.
  25. 22.
  26. 23.
  27. 24.
  28. 25.
  29. 26.
  30. 27.
  31. 28.
  32. 29.
  33. 30.
  34. 31.
  35. 32.
  36. 33.
  37. 34.
  38. 35.
  39. 36.
  40. 37.
  41. 38.
  42. 39.
  43. 40.
  44. 41.
  45. 42.
  46. 43.
  47. 44.
  48. 45.
  49. 46.
  50. 47.
  51. 48.
  52. 49.
  53. 50.
  54. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  55. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Isabet looked up. Inaya stood in the doorway, hand to her mouth. “My God,” Inaya said. “What have you done?”

“He was meant for you,” Isabet said. “This was all meant for you.”

46.

“I know I’ve got an infiltrator on my team. If you’re it, let’s just get this done now,” Nyx said to Safiyah.

They stood just inside the roiling darkness of the magicians’ tunnels with Ahmed, the only light a faint glimmer from a glow globe Safiyah had spirited away from some inattentive trader. It was the safest place Nyx knew to talk about it, and the last place. Because the next stop was Nasheen, and she needed to know what she was facing back there.

“I am God’s hammer,” Safiyah said. “But I’ve not come for you. You’re just the bait.”

Nyx had been a lot of things, but never bait. It was kind of a letdown.

“Bait for who?” Nyx said.

“The Families want an end to the war. Your old friend Alharazad does not.”

“Fucking Alharazad,” Nyx said. Her fault, again, for not killing that scheming bel dame when she had the chance. How many could she have saved, with that one death? Eskander and Khatijah and Eshe, maybe Kage too. Who knew if Kage had made it across the desert on her own? Not to mention the Aadhyan women she killed. Or the men she shot and stabbed in Bomani. Or Mercia’s body guards. Bloody fucking.

One life. She could have taken one life, seven years ago, and spared them all of this.

My life for a thousand, the bel dame oath went, but she hadn’t sacrificed herself, had she? She’d chosen to live and eat and fuck and rebuild at the coast, the same thing she’d heckled Rhys for doing. And this is what came of it. This is what happened when bel dames went soft.

“Tell me truly,” Safiyah said. “If Alharazad was the catalyst for all this madness, where would we find her?”

“How the fuck should I know?” Nyx said. She remembered the desert, the murderous crows, hauling her team’s bodies across the sand. All that for nothing. All that because she had stayed her hand.

“I know you can find her,” Safiyah said. “I bet a great deal on it.”

“Then you’re a fucking fool.”

Safiyah sighed. “Child, where would you go if you sought to thwart the Queen’s plan of shooting the aliens out of the sky and ending the war? If you wanted to steal the aliens’ technology, and twist the bel dames against themselves, and seize power in the vacuum left behind as the Queen stepped down, the broederbond fought one another over Raine’s death, and the bel dames were implicated in that death? Where would you go? The last place anyone would look?”