“No. You do. You’ve been a terrible influence on me, Miss Andreu. I was once so innocent. Now look at me—volunteering for a role in a war. God”—he rolled his eye skyward—“my reputation will be in shambles.”
“Most unfortunate,” she said, and bit her lip. It was an absentminded habit, but it exploded in Vex’s gut as a flurry of effervescent bubbles. “From outlaw to war hero. How will you recover?”
Vex sat up to be level with her. He trailed his fingers shoulder to shoulder, delighting in the small exhale of pleasure he got from her.
“I won’t,” he said, and the humor left his voice. He skimmed his fingers lower, cupping her hip and pulling hercloser. “I plan on never recovering from what you’ve done to me.”
He kissed her, knowing she would want to respond to that, to argue about all the ways she had affected him poorly. It baffled him that she thought herself unworthy of him, and he refused to hear her talk like that. He just kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her.
I told your mother I thought I loved you. That was a lie.
I know I love you. I’ve known I loved you all along.
The sun was coming up when Vex found Jakes sitting against the outside of a tenement building, eating breakfast.
Vex’s legs still ached, and each step felt like knives dug into his bones. He hadn’t had the instant relief he’d felt with the other cures, as though his body finally got something it’d been missing for so long. He’d expected this cure to bethecure.
Maybe it would just take time. He had to press through—like he had to press through every step, in public, when he wasn’t wearing his eye patch.
Putting it back on hadn’t felt right after everything with Lu. But Vex wavered a bit now without it, watching everyone he passed who was able to see his scar.
Vex stopped next to Jakes. Jakes looked up at him, his recoil obvious and jarring.
Vex sank his hands into his pockets. “I have a proposition for you.”Asshole.
Jakes dropped his breakfast plate on the ground. “What could Paxben Gallego want with me?” he asked in Argridian.
Vex’s eyebrows shot up. He’d forgotten this defensor knew who he was.
He rethought his whole insane plan in the single breath before he said, also in Argridian, “The boy that Elazar has. Teo. I’m going after him.”
Jakes didn’t look up. “How does that involve me?”
“What the hell do you mean? He’s your nephew. Elazar might be experimenting on him. I’m going to get him. Thought you might want in on it.”
“Elazar doesn’t return captives. Especially ones who are of use to him.”
Vex bristled. “He’s. Your. Nephew.”
Jakes finally looked up at him. His eyes were bloodshot and his upper lip curled back. “Should I dissolve in a blubbering mess? Elazar has Lu’s vial. And the boy. Lu refuses to make more magic. Whatever you think you can do—” Jakes snorted, brittle. “It’s over.”
“Like hell. You’re still alive, aren’t you?Teois still alive. It isn’t over till we’re all dead.” God, saying that was a knife in the chest. Vex braced himself.
Jakes’s knees popped up, and he stared down at his hands in the cradle of his lap. Vex thought he might not respond until his shoulders caved.
“Tomás Andreu led this attack, and he’s the one who orchestrated taking... Teo,” Jakes started. He said Teo’sname as though it was a foreign word, something his tongue hadn’t been trained to handle. “But Elazar was beginning to question Andreu’s commitment. Andreu will be trying to prove his loyalty. He’ll be wherever Elazar is.”
“And where is that?”
Jakes thought. “Elazar brought his light to Port Mesi-Teab and Port Fausta. Port Camden will be next—but he’s likely already there. Your best chance is New Deza. His final stop.”
“What’s Elazar planning to happen there?”
Jakes looked up at him, annoyed. “I already told your leaders that I don’t know. He kept me out of his final plans. It has something to do with the raiders he took, and his coming light—whatever it is, it will purify this island.”
Vex hesitated. Kari and the raider Heads knew this much about Elazar’s plans—that he was traveling from city to city, ending in New Deza. And Vex would have a Budwig Bean. If he saw anything important, he’d get news to Kari.
Resolution trickled into Vex’s body, building and building as he stood there, on the precipice of action. “All right.” He kicked Jakes’s boot. “Get up. You’re coming with me.”
