afraid, or surprised by what Karam had thought would be a revelation.
“I have to admit, using magic to freeze my forces in Creije was a smart move. I imagine your treacherous little army is making its way through the city now?”
“Not just in Creije,” Wesley said. “Fenna Schulze is crossing over to Yejlath with half of our forces. They’re not going to let the government city fall.”
Ashwood flinched a little upon hearing the Doyen’s name, as though that, rather than all Wesley had done before to bring him down, was the true betrayal. The Kingpin recovered quickly, though, and replaced his slight frown with a wicked smile.
And then he clapped.
Not slow and tense, but loud and erratic, bubbling with laughter as he did so. His shoulders shook with glee.
“Bravo, Wesley,” Ashwood said, delighted. “You really are a wonder. So many great plans inside of that head. It’s a shame that you waste it all.”
“He has a lot of potential,” Zekia agreed.
Karam didn’t like the way she stared between Wesley and Tavia.
“Your armies will fall,” Karam said.
When she spoke, Zekia’s eyes shot to her, taking her attention from Tavia.
Ashwood shook his head. “Every soldier I have can be replaced,” he said. “Can you say the same?”
Karam couldn’t.
Each loss she had felt was a blow, and Asees’s death had nearly been the thing to kill her spirit. If she lost someone else—if she lost Tavia to that awful future she had seen—then Karam would never forgive herself for it.
“I don’t need an army to deal with you four,” Ashwood said. “You’re just children who must be disciplined.”
“Why don’t you quit talking and try to kill us?” Wesley asked. “And then I can take back my sister.”
Karam could see Zekia’s lips shaking and how her hand flinched to move forward, as though to reach out, maybe, and grab on to Wesley, like a child clinging to her favorite toy. Or, Karam supposed, a little girl clinging to her big brother.
But it was too late for that now. It was too late for Zekia.
Ashwood inclined to face Wesley, his shadows shifting to reveal the point of a smile on his narrow face.
“She was never yours,” he said. “She was always mine.”
Zekia brought a hand to the back of her neck, like she was rubbing away old strings.
“Don’t forget, kid. You get to choose,” Wesley said to her. “I trust you.”
Zekia sighed.
At him. At herself.
She looked at him with those same graveyard eyes that Wesley had, took in a breath, and said—
“That’s dangerous.”
No sooner did the words float from her lips than a burst of lightning exploded from the sky and snapped at Tavia’s feet. Without thinking, Karam shoved her out of the way and the two of them toppled to the ground in a heap.
Ashwood clapped his hands again, applauding Tavia’s near death.
Karam scrambled to her feet and pulled Tavia up with her, but Zekia was already sending another shot of lightning her way. Karam pushed Tavia again, but the busker’s ankle caught and when she crashed to the ground for a second time, Tavia’s head bounced against the pavement.
There was blood in her mouth.
She’s going to kill her, Karam thought.
This was the moment she and Arjun had seen in that vision.
This was the bridge that Tavia was going to die on.
“Yes,” Ashwood cheered. “My little warrior, you are a wonder.”
Karam half-expected Saxony’s sister to be laughing maniacally beside him, but Zekia stood still, with an odd crease in the center of her tiny brows. She did not look happy to see Tavia’s blood painted across the bridge.
Wesley and Saxony ran over and while Wesley lifted Tavia from the ground, Saxony cast a wall of protection in front of them.
Karam pulled out her knives.
She wouldn’t let this happen.
“Don’t do this,” Wesley said. “Don’t turn your back on your family.”
“I’m not,” Zekia said. “I know who my real family is.”
Whatever side Zekia was on, she would have family. Ashwood had plagued her thoughts and twisted her mind so that she saw him as a father she would gladly choose over her sister and her brother.
“Gods damn it, kid,” Wesley said. “Don’t be an idiot!”
“Wesley,” Ashwood said.
His voice filled with something close to love.
“Don’t be rude. You’re standing in the way of our new world.”
“A new world,” Zekia repeated.
Her voice was smaller than Karam remembered.
“I’ve seen the world and—”
“I have seen things too,” Karam said. “And unlike you, I will not let them come to pass.”
She threw her knife at Zekia.
It sailed past Ashwood, nearly clipping