looking to get back everything you took from me soon enough.”
A lot of the magic Tavia had stolen was already distributed among the buskers, but the rest—the things kept aside for training, or the few rare cases where she couldn’t figure out the nature of the charm—had been cataloged and stored for safekeeping.
She was glad Nolan hadn’t found that store and reclaimed his mysterious treasures yet.
“Want to see what it does?” Nolan asked.
She really didn’t.
Tavia flung out a charm and the marble beelined for the buskers trying to protect Nolan. It burst into a hundred tiny insects that swarmed around three of them, biting and stinging without relent.
They yelled, waving their hands through the air to keep the creatures at bay. But by the time they parted to let Tavia get to Nolan, it was too late.
He had pulled a lighter from his pocket and lit the fuse of the Star Egg.
Nolan took a worrying step back and said nothing before throwing a shield over himself.
The Star Egg exploded in a loud whistle, shooting sparks up into the sky like a lightning bolt in reverse. They were gold and glistening and when they hit the clouds, they screamed and then scattered across the night like rain, readying to pour down on the camp.
Quickly, Tavia pulled a shield charm from her own pocket and cast it overhead. Whatever crap magic Nolan had loaded into that device, she didn’t want it getting anywhere near her or Bastian.
The sparks hissed angrily over the shield, but for a good twenty feet in any direction of her, the ground sizzled and smoked. People fell to the ground, blisters burning on their skin as they screamed and screamed for the pain to stop.
They were dying. Dozens of people. Including Nolan’s friends who she’d taken down with the insect charm.
Many Gods.
The Star Egg was like nothing Tavia had ever seen. What had looked like a glorious explosion in the sky was now washing down like deadly poison, melting people’s skin to the bone, while Nolan looked on with a smug smile.
“Now that’s a shame,” Nolan said. “I put a perfectly good acid charm inside of that thing and you didn’t even die.”
Tavia swallowed as the light subsided and her shield began to crumble.
“Guess I’ll just have to gut you instead,” Nolan said.
Tavia cursed and readied to show Nolan that he didn’t know who he was dealing with.
“There’s a busker trying to kill you,” a voice whispered in her ear.
Tavia jumped at the sound of Wesley, suddenly beside her.
“Are you trying to kill me?” she asked, hand pressed to her chest.
Wesley didn’t answer, but his eyes narrowed toward Nolan.
“I don’t appreciate you attacking my best busker.”
“You’re the underboss of Creije,” Nolan said. “I’ve been wanting to meet you.”
“Why? You got a death wish or something?” Wesley asked.
Nolan smirked. “You’re not so tough,” he said. “The infamous Wesley Thornton Walcott, come to save the—”
Wesley pulled out his gun and shot Nolan straight in the head, before he had the chance to finish.
His aim hadn’t suffered one bit in the months of captivity.
Nolan’s body fell to the ground.
“Definitely had a death wish,” Wesley said.
“By all that is holy,” Bastian said, with a gasp.
“I’ve never been called holy before.” Wesley holstered his gun. “Godly, maybe.”
He turned to Tavia, his eyes scanning over her bruised arms and the scratches she knew were marked across her face.
He reached out and pressed a hand to her cheek, and Tavia nearly froze with the shock of his touch. Warm hands pressed against her skin, in a way that was more tender than she could bear.
“I was going to take care of him,” Tavia said. “Nolan was my problem to solve.”
Wesley dropped his hand back to his side.
Tavia felt the cold absence of his touch.
She wasn’t trying to sound ungrateful, but Tavia had been the one to let Nolan escape and it was her fault he’d been able to come back here and hurt people.
She’d wanted to deal with him herself, like she hadn’t been able to before.
“I’ll let you kill the next one, if you really want,” Wesley said, like a peace offering. “I didn’t realize you’d become so bloodthirsty.”
Tavia rolled her eyes. “Just stop talking and start saving people,” she said.
“Yes,” Bastian said eagerly. “We must help the others.”
Wesley cast a glance to Saxony’s father and nodded.
“We’ll help them,” he said. “You stay here and find shelter.”
Bastian looked offended. “I shall help to protect my people.”
“You shall get yourself killed trying,” Wesley said, in