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Amari follows, silent tears leaking onto her cheeks. Despite my grief, a prickle of anger flares. Why is she crying? Once again, her family is the reason mine is being torn apart.
Oh, I hope this stops soon. Amari had nothing to do with what her father has done. She was a child when it happened as well.
Amari should be in one hand, the divîner thief chained in the other. Kaea should’ve retrieved the scroll. Only the divîner’s hut need have burned.
So, they planned to burn the hut to flush them out,without even verifying they were inside first? Not realizing a fire would spread quickly with these thatched ahérés? Really? That was the plan? Wow.
If I had succeeded in returning the scroll, Father would’ve understood. He would’ve thanked me for my discretion, praised my shrewd judgment in sparing Ilorin.
No, he said to wipe out the village after getting the scroll and Amari anyway.
I grab my blade as a small child hurls his body to the ground.
You grab a blade for a small child?
I turn away and squeeze my eyes shut, forcing my bile down. Duty before self. I hear Father’s voice. The safety of Orïsha before my conscience. But these villagers are Orïsha. They’re the very people I’m sworn to protect.
Exactly! Start to free think, child. Everything is not as your father said.
“This is a mess.” Admiral Kaea stomps to my side, knuckles bloody from beating the soldier who lit the fire too soon and started the blaze.
Ah, so that’s what happened.
Like in the market, the heat prickles my scalp. It pulses as a thin wisp of air floats toward me. A strange turquoise cloud cutting through the black smoke.
Don’t tell me the gods are dry snitching! Leading him to her. Is this strange sensation a mating bond?
“See what?” Kaea asks, but I don’t have a chance to respond. The turquoise cloud passes through my fingers. A foreign image of the divîner ignites in my head.…
Did Mama Agba send that?
I see the girl who haunts my thoughts, sinking among the corpses and driftwood, falling into the blackness of the sea. She doesn’t fight the current that pulls her down. She relinquishes control. Sinking into death.
Oh, maybe she did do that, to throw him off the trail.
Suddenly all the pieces come together. The thrashing. The vision. I should’ve known all along. Magic … My stomach twists in knots. I rake my nails over my tingling arm. I have to get this virus out of me. I need to rip the treacherous sensation from my skin—
Don’t tell me he’s the firstborn son! That his father’s first wife was a maji! He has magic as well?
I squeeze Father’s sênet pawn so hard my knuckles crack.
And now I’m thinking this sênet pawn is a magic blocking thing!
“Count to ten,” I whisper again, gathering all the pieces like pawns. By the time I hiss “five,” a terrifying realization hits: the divîner girl has the scroll. The spark I felt when she brushed against me. The electric energy that surged through my veins. And when our eyes locked …
Nope, buddy. She did not have the scroll or even know of its existence when you touched her… but Amari did bump into you before she did and she had the scroll… 🤔
She must’ve infected me.
Oh wow. Your denial is so strong that now you’re making up things that have never been said about magic before! Contagious? Really, son?
“The divîner with the scroll. We need to locate her before she hurts anyone else.”
She didn’t hurt anyone yet. That’s all you and your team.
“A villager,” I lie. “He told me they went south.” “Where is the villager now?” I point blindly at a corpse, but my finger lands on the scorched body of a child.
A corpse told you?
I scan the dark faces of those who refuse to meet my eyes, searching for any sign of the truth. Their fear soaks into the air like humidity. It seeps into my own skin. “—gods, please—” “—if he kills me—” “—in the gods’ names did she steal—”
He can hear their thoughts? Why can’t he hear Kaea’s?
Screams erupt as she grabs an elderly woman by her gray hair.
Wow. An elderly woman. Nice Admiral.
“We can tell you about her brother and father. We can tell you of her skill with a staff. But not a soul in Ilorin knows where she’s gone or why.”
Yemi? Is she snitching?
“Yemi,” she chokes out.
I knew it.
Amari inspects the ground, shivering in the forest cold. She eventually lays her cloak down and sleeps on top of it, too regal to grace the earth with her bare head.
Why wouldn’t she snuggle near Nailah for warmth?
Now only cool anger simmers, anger I shouldn’t bother feeling. I’d bet five hundred silver pieces she won’t last another day.
Yet you saw the vision of the three of you. 🙄🙄
“Ràn mí lw,” I pray instead. Help me. Those words feel so much realer, so much more like my own. “Mama Agba says you’ve chosen me. Baba agrees, but I … I’m scared. This is too important. I don’t want to screw it up.”
Why would she do this right beside her brother and Amari? Seems like a private moment.
I recognize the smolder in his amber eyes first,
Smolder, huh?
I take in the curve of his muscles, the bright hue of his copper skin, the strange white streak in his hair.
And there you have it! Half-blood with maji powers.
I didn’t even touch the scroll until after we escaped Lagos, after our eyes locked and electric energy tickled my skin.
Exactly
As a child, all I wanted to learn about were the Reapers like Mama, but she insisted I know just as much about every other clan.
Which makes sense. Shouldn’t be ignorant to the powers of the other maji.
She always warned me about the Connectors, maji who wielded power over mind, spirit, and dreams.
So that’s what he is.
Amari had the scroll in Lagos. She crashed into her brother when we ran past.
There you go.
“A whole loaf?” I salivate at the thought. It’s been moons since I’ve had a good slice.
Did she at least leave a pouch of coin with her father and Agba?
“What happened to the coin from the sailfish?” Tzain dumps out my pack. I groan as a few silver pieces and Amari’s headdress fall to the ground. “Most of it was lost in the fire,” Tzain sighs.
Wow. How convenient.
Where’s her outrage been all these years? Where was she after the Raid?” “She was six.” Tzain keeps his tone flat. “A child, just like you.”
That part. Then her mother kept her oppressed.
time. But when I glance over, her bare back is still exposed. “Oh my gods…” My heart lurches as I take in the gruesome scar carved along Amari’s spine. The mark ripples across her skin, so ghastly it makes my own skin tingle with pain.
See. Judging people.
Tzain turns just before Amari whips around, sucking in his breath at the mark.
Why would she whip around? Her breast would then be exposed.
I try to apologize as well, but the words stall when I look at her cloaked back. Gods. I don’t want to imagine what other scars hide along her skin.
Yeah, not so judging about how she grew up now.
“Father’s first family was coddled.” Her voice grows distant. “Weak. He said they died because of it. He wouldn’t allow the same thing to happen to us.”
What the!
He steps forward, his gray hairs glinting under the sun.
Grey hairs, or aging diviner?
I stare at Amari as the merchant takes the headdress and piles the gold into velvet bags. “Take the bow.” He beams. “Take whatever you like!”
No how is he going to sell that without being killed?
“I’ll take this.” “If you don’t know how to use it—” the merchant warns. “Why do you assume I don’t?”
Now Tzain needs a weapon. He no longer has the rusty knife he gave to Zelie.
Amari smiles and picks up a piece, taking a triumphant bite. “If you wish to hit me, you will have to try a little harder than that.”
Oh now she’s all cocky?
If I hit one too hard, my ryder will buck me from my saddle. “Now.” I snap Lula’s reins when she growls. “Don’t be such a lazy bastard.” Lula flashes her serrated fangs but quickens her pace.
Oh wow. That’s how he treats animals?!
I force a nod, pretending to listen as Kaea continues to talk.
So why hasn’t he been able to read Kaea’s thoughts? Instead of wondering and panicking.
Their lionaire is skittish after almost slipping off the last mountain. Now she climbs only after Tzain proves it’s safe.
Lol
“Hey,” Tzain calls. “Don’t look down. You’re doing great.” “You’re lying.”
He’s not. You’re up there and still alive. You’re doing amazing!
the last time I saw a boy’s bare body my nannies were giving Inan and me baths.
🤣🤣🤣
Zélie jumps to her feet and expands her staff, ready to fight at a moment’s notice.
Honey stop. You would think that she would see from where she was if someone was there to use her staff on.
A gaping hole above its eye socket signals its violent death. “Could it be another climber?” I ask. “Someone who did not make it through?”
You just mentioned the hole though. Someone killed that person.
She grips the bromeliads so tightly the flowers rip straight off their stems.
I doubt it would take much to rip flowers from stems… so not a good description.
A golden crown sits in her sculpted white coils,
The statue has white hair? A statue?
“Is it safe?” I whisper.
How would they know, Amari?
“Wait,” Kaea calls. “What shall we do with him?” “Please,” the merchant trembles. “I didn’t know it was stolen! I pay my taxes on time. I’m loyal to the king!”
Your greedy ass should have left! You had such a valuable item, but you stayed to get more money! You could have went somewhere else.
