“War on Raiders!” they shouted. “Welcome the light! War on Raiders!”
7
VEX WOKE UPwith a bag over his head and one hell of a headache.
Iron manacles pinned his wrists behind him and ropes tied his legs to a chair. He groaned, loudly, hoping to get the bag pulled off so he could find out who’d attacked them.
Wait. Did hewantthe bag pulled off? Maybe he should stay ignorant.
Before he could pretend to be unconscious again, light stabbed him in the eye. He let out an annoyed croak and slammed his eye shut, alarm flaring until a voice said, with the slightest Emerdian accent, “Devereux. Fucking.Bell.”
He couldn’t stop his grin.
The room’s shuttered windows meant the light was coming from lanterns and a massive fireplace in Emerdian masonry, this one a crisscross of gold and peach bricks. ToVex’s right, Kari, Edda, and Cansu’s raiders were tied to chairs; to his left was Nayeli. All had bags on their heads.
Ahead of him, backed up by equally furious-looking raiders, stood Nathaniel Blaise.
Emerdians held leatherworking, equestrianism, and masonry as elite parts of their culture. Nate wore their telltale signs: a well-crafted leather jacket, gleaming riding boots, and a flared maroon leather hat with a wide brim that curved up on the sides. Two pistols sat on his hips, and when he hooked his hands around one, polished stone rings flashed on three of his fingers.
Nate had never intimidated Vex. There were two types of Emerdians—the blithe kind who served Argrid’s Pious God but used that religion as an excuse to be forgiven for any sin they could think of; and the studious, manipulative kind who had taken Emerdian crafts like masonry and warped them into buildings like that inescapable prison.
Nate was the former type—the reason he’d let his syndicate flounder in poverty so long. But his husband was the latter, and god, wasthatman terrifying.
“Where’s Pierce?” Vex asked. “Your husband promised he’d do a few things to me if I showed my face in Port Camden again, and I’m curious to see how he keeps those promises. Some of them didn’t sound physically possible.”
Nate’s whole face went red. He ripped off his hat, chucked it behind him, and dove forward, throwing Vex back in the chair.
“You don’t get to talk about him,” Nate snapped. “Especially you, Argridian rat. I’ve cleaned enough of you out of my city, but you keep popping up like the pointy-faced vermin you are.”
Vex’s whole body went molten hot. “The hell you say?”
Nate reared back to rip a pistol from his holster and aim it at Vex’s head.
“You know me, Nate!” Vex tried. “That doesn’t mean you like me, but you know I’m not—”
“Don’t matter. Argridian’s Argridian, and if I’d followed that rule from the start, I wouldn’t have had to put up with your bullshit in the past.”
Vex gawked. He admitted to being a pain in the raider Heads’ asses, stealing from them, blowing up their stuff—but that was the reason Nate should’ve hated him. Because he was a nuisance. Not because Vex was anArgridian rat.
The difference sank into Vex’s toes. After the revolution, there had been two options on this island for people with Argridian pasts: either they gave up all ties and called themselves Grace Lorayan, or they stuck to being Argridian but got labeledone of the enemy.Vex’d become a raider, a pest on his own, andthatwas what he was known for.
This war had reshuffled enemies and allies. On one side, Argrid and the Grace Lorayans had unified to get rid of outsiders—raiders. On the other, raiders were justified in hating Argridians and Grace Lorayans for trying to wipe them out.
But what about Argridian raiders? What about anyone who still didn’t fit into the narrow boxes this country kept trying to squeeze around people?
Being Argridian felt as volatile as Vex’s Shaking Sickness. He hadn’t chosen to be this way, but that didn’t matter in Nate’s hatred. Yet another instance of Vex’s work to reinvent himself these past five years not meaning a damn thing.
Nate cocked the pistol. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t save myself a lot of trouble and kill you now.”
Vex jutted his head at Kari. “She’ll explain.”
Nate yanked the bag off Kari’s head. She blinked, dazed by the light, and when she focused on him, Nate aimed the pistol at Vex again. But there was a desperation in his look now, a glaze over his eyes and a twitch to his lips. Was Nate crying?
“An Argridian and a councilmember.” Nate laid each letter side by side. “In my city.”
“Goddamn it, Nate, I’m not an Argridian! Stop saying that. The hell is wrong with you?”
“You Argridians took over my city,” Nate said. “Most of my raiders aregone. People have been going missing for weeks, before Elazar got here, so I thought it was those damn Grozdans on our eastern border. Snatching up my raiders ’cause their own are all muscle, no brain.” Nate clicked his tongue in disgust. “But when Elazar revealed he was working with the Council, I knew it’d been him allalong. We put up a fight. But the Council soldiers in Port Camden knew we’d turn on ’em, because they knew Elazar was here before we ever did. Triple the number of guards met our resistance. I lost almost a third of my raiders in one day, not including the half dozen that Argrid—the Council, too—captured. They’re being held in the prisonwebuilt. Shit, we should’ve torn that place down after the war. Not only that—”
