said Kaz. “I’m not leaving it with my tail between my legs.”
Jesper released a growl of frustration. “If this is your city, what’s left of it? You gave up your shares in the Crow Club and Fifth Harbor. You don’t have a gang anymore. Even if you did escape, Van Eck and Rollins would sic the stadwatch and half the Barrel on you again. You can’t fight them all.”
“Watch me.”
“Damn it, Kaz. What are you always telling me? Walk away from a losing hand.”
“I’m giving you a way out. Take it.”
“Why are you treating us like a bunch of yellow-bellied skivs?”
Kaz turned on him. “You’re the one getting ready to bolt, Jesper. You just want me to run with you so you don’t have to feel so bad about it. For all your love of a fight, you’re always the first to talk about running for cover.”
“Because I want to stay alive .”
“For what?” Kaz said, his eyes glittering. “So you can play another hand at the tables? So you can find another way to disappoint your father and let down your friends? Have you told your father you’re the reason he’s going to lose his farm? Have you told Inej you’re the reason she almost died at the end of Oomen’s knife? That we all almost died?”
Jesper’s shoulders bunched, but he didn’t back down. “I made a mistake. I let my bad get the best of my good, but for Saints’ sake, Kaz, how long are you going to make me pay for a little forgiveness?”
“What do you think my forgiveness looks like, Jordie?”
“Who the hell is Jordie?”
For the briefest moment, Kaz’s face went slack, a confused, almost frightened look in his dark eyes—there and gone, so fast Wylan wondered if he’d imagined it.
“What do you want from me?” Kaz snarled, his expression just as closed, just as cruel as ever. “My trust? You had it and you shot it to pieces because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut.”
“One time. How many times have I had your back in a fight? How many times have I gotten it right? Doesn’t that count for anything?” Jesper threw up his hands. “I can’t win with you. No one can.”
“That’s right. You can’t win. You think you’re a gambler, but you’re just a born loser. Fights. Cards. Boys. Girls. You’ll keep playing until you lose, so for once in your life, just walk away.”
Jesper swung first. Kaz dodged right and then they were grappling. They slammed into the wall, knocked heads, drew apart in a flurry of punches and grabs.
Wylan turned to Inej, expecting her to object, for Matthias to separate them, for someone to do something , but the others just backed up, making room. Only Kuwei showed any kind of distress.
Jesper and Kaz swung around, crashed into the mechanism of the clock, righted themselves. It wasn’t a fight, it was a brawl—graceless, a tangle of elbows and fists.
“Ghezen and his works, someone stop them!” Wylan said desperately.
“Jesper hasn’t shot him,” Nina said.
“Kaz isn’t using his cane,” said Inej.
“You think they can’t kill each other with their bare hands?”
They were both bleeding—Jesper from a cut on his lip and Kaz from somewhere near his brow. Jesper’s shirt was halfway over his head and Kaz’s sleeve was tearing at the seam.
The trapdoor sprang open and Colm Fahey’s head emerged. His ruddy cheeks went even redder.
“Jesper Llewellyn Fahey, that is enough !” he roared.
Jesper and Kaz both startled, and then, to Wylan’s shock, they stepped away from each other, looking guilty.
“Just what is going on here?” Colm said. “I thought you were friends.”
Jesper ran a hand over the back of his neck, looking like he wanted to vanish through the floorboards. “We … uh … we were having a disagreement.”
“I can see that. I have been very patient with all of this, Jesper, but I am at my limit. I want you down here before I count ten or I will tan your hide so you don’t sit for two weeks.”
Colm’s head vanished back down the stairs. The silence stretched.
Then Nina giggled. “You are in so much trouble.”
Jesper scowled. “Matthias, Nina let Cornelis Smeet grope her bottom.”
Nina stopped laughing. “I am going to turn your teeth inside out.”
“That is physically impossible.”
“I just raised the dead. Do you really want to argue with me?”
Inej cocked her head to one side. “Jesper Llewellyn Fahey?”
“Shut up,” said Jesper. “It’s a family name.”
Inej made a solemn bow. “Whatever you say, Llewellyn.”
“Kaz?” Jesper said tentatively.
But Kaz was staring