She disconnects without saying goodbye. I stick the phone in my pocket. Orisa nudges me, holding out the notebook of survivors, and gestures into the distance.
“Tovi,” I breathe.
I fling myself into his arms, standing on tiptoe for a kiss. I haven’t seen him since the camp attack.
“Hi, Sunshine.”
“I missed you.”
He strokes my hair and kisses my forehead. There is no safety to be found in this war-torn land, but I find it in his arms.
Yet I felt his hesitation, too.
“Is there any news of your friends?”
I shake my head. “Lorcan is still a vegetable, and Zosia is still missing.”
Emotion flickers over his features. “And you? Are you holding up?”
“We’re doing okay. It’s hard, slow work. Every time we manage to dig a firebreak, the pirates will attack.”
“Destroying the ferry was never going to hold them off for long.”
“No. We keep destroying the replacements they put in place, but they keep rebuilding them as fast as we can take them down. They’re pissed.”
“So are we.”
I glance at the long line of refugees waiting to be recorded and allotted food and a place to sleep.
“The invaders have guns and an endless supply of volunteers. We have a lot of traumatized farmers.”
“That just means we have nothing left to lose, Sunshine.”
I can’t help but grin. He side-arm-hugs me and says, “You haven’t lost yet. You’ve put together a small army, led it to outsized victories, and managed to keep them from making any advancements for months. You’ve performed miracles.”
My stomach flips. I couldn’t decide whether to be embarrassed or proud of what I’d accomplished. It didn’t feel like very much, but when he frames it that way, I feel like less of a failure.
“Are you staying?”
“For a while. I’ve come to aid the mission.”
“Brenica permitted it?”
His expression flattens.
“Not exactly.”
Oh, no. I don’t want to cause a rift between him and his family.
“Tovi, I want to tell her how grateful we are—”
“She knows, Sunshine.” He turned away contemplatively. “She’ll come around eventually. My mother is afraid. Everyone is.”
“You’re not.”
“Yeah, I am. I’m afraid of what they’ll do to this country if we don’t push them out. I’m afraid it will mean the end of the Ansi way of life.” He brushes my cheek with the back of one knuckle. “Most of all, I’m afraid of what they’ll do to you if they catch you.”
A sickening feeling roils my stomach. Zosia is our strength, carrying thousands of weight of cultural significance. She is also our weakness. Her daughters will be the heirs to the Auralian throne. The monarchy is central to our whole culture. What easier way to destroy it than to kidnap our queen, force her to bear children, and take them from her to raise in her place?
