I hesitated. It was essentially a yes. “At least listen to my plan—”

“Have you lost your mind?” he yelled. His hands were in front of him, imploring, grasping in and out as if he didn’t know what else to do with them. “After everything I’ve done to keep you alive, you go and put yourself at the mercy of—” He yelled out in frustration and covered his face with his hands. His shoulders were shaking a little.

I put my knife away, just as slowly as I’d pulled it. Jember didn’t cry often. Sometimes, when he thought I was sleeping and he didn’t have any more pills, he would cry a little from the pain. But I’d never known him to show remorse. Tears were never shed over a human. Least of all me.

But when he removed his hands, tears were there, though he wiped the evidence away so quickly it felt almost like an illusion. He’d released the bit of humanity he allowed himself, his good survival habits taking over faster than I could summon the emotion to comfort him.

“You little idiot,” he said. “I might as well kill you myself—”

Saba planted herself in front of me. His momentum slowed the slightest bit. I couldn’t lie, I loved the power she held over him, as meager as it was.

“I swear to God, Saba, if you don’t move—”

“You can’t beat her, old man,” I said, waving my scarred fingers at him. “And we can fight if you want, but what good would it do? It won’t change what I’ve done.”

“Do you know what you’ve done?” he shot back. “Because I don’t think you do.”

“I’m protecting the people I care about—”

“At the expense of your own life?”

“It was the best way—”

“You know damn well it wasn’t—”

“Stop it!” Magnus said, rushing over to me. “Why are you threatening—?”

“I will kill you, little boy,” Jember said, and the look in his eye was animalistic. “This is between me and my daughter. Back away.”

I wasn’t sure which part to react more strongly to, the part where he said he’d kill Magnus … or the part where he said, clear as day, that I was his daughter.

Saba had put herself in front of Magnus, just in case Jember tried to carry out his promise right then. And Magnus looked terrified, but he backed up a few steps, thank God, quiet as death.