CoS27

## Chapter 27

**Chapter 27** of **City of Spells** follows **Karam**.

## **Full Version**

SAXONY STOOD LIKESUNSHINE on top of a snow-coated mountain, her mouth parted perfectly in the shape of Karam’s name. The surprise on her face was like an explosion. Sudden and disarming. Saxony ran toward her and the force of her hug when they connected felt like a train.

“You’re alive!” she said.

“Not for long if you keep squeezing me like this,” Karam said.

Saxony dropped her arms to her sides, and then quickly raised them to Karam’s cheeks and kissed her.

“I thought you died.”

“She’s got more lives than any of us,” Tavia said, appearing by her side with a smile. “You know you’re bleeding, right? You look like crap.”

Karam had missed her eloquence, but she sacrificed a reply in favor of turning to glare at Wesley, who was inexplicably standing in front of her.

“You are supposed to be a prisoner.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” he said. “But I didn’t fancy being your damsel. I don’t need to be saved.”

“Your tune never changes does it, underboss?” Arjun asked. “You never need to be saved.”

Wesley shrugged. “I’m a lone wolf,” he said, and just about all of them turned to look at him with raised eyebrows.

“What happened in the forest?” Karam asked. “We came back and you were not there.”

“Ashwood found our camp,” Tavia said.

“Nolan?” Karam asked. “We were ambushed too.”

“Divide and conquer,” Wesley said. “It’s not a bad plan. How did you find us?”

“With this.”

Karam held up the ring and Saxony grinned.

“I knew you’d find your way back to me,” she said.

“Magical compass aside, what happened on the beach?” Tavia asked. “Where are the others? Where’s Asees?”

It was then that Karam became acutely aware that she’d been trying not to cry for days. That Arjun, standing like a warrior beside her, was taking slow and shaking breaths.

Saxony’s eyes narrowed.

“Everyone else get back inside and give us some privacy,” she called over her shoulder.

The rest of the army was still gathered around them with open ears and prying eyes. With a grumble, the strangers, those who were not *family* in the same way that the rest of them were, shuffled inside. Karam was thankful. She could not handle an audience at this moment.

Saxony looked between her and Arjun. “What is it?” she asked.

“Our group was attacked by Ashwood’s men as soon as we reached Tisvgen,” Arjun said.

“I was being held there,” Wesley said. “They moved me from Creije a couple of days before I escaped. There were hardly any Crafters there, though. Just me, Zekia, and maybe a handful of others.”

“Which means that Nolan did tip Ashwood off,” Karam said. “There were so many of them on the beach by the time we arrived. Too many.”

She swallowed.

“Asees is dead,” she said, so Arjun wouldn’t have to.

Her voice was quiet, but not in an uncertain way. It was quiet in an angry, bitter way she hadn’t felt since her pehta died. Quiet in the same way the skies were as they changed color into a silent black, while the storm and the lightning and the hail brewed inside.

She was quiet in the same way death often was.

“Everyone is dead.”

Wesley’s eyes flickered. “Because you came for me.”

Karam pictured Asees’s broken body, bloody on the beach, and tried to keep herself from crumbling at the pain.

“It was not because of you,” Arjun said. “I know you think that the realms revolve around you, underboss. But this was the Kingpin, and I will not let you take Asees’s death from his hands. Or her justice from mine.”

Karam sucked in a breath.

*Justice.*She dismissed the notion. It was revenge they needed. *Blood.*

“I will take over as Liege of my Kin,” Arjun said.

His voice was too small for his stature.

There would be only a handful of his people left.

“Of course,” Saxony said. “I’m leading the Rishiyat Crafters now and will work with you to head up the magical army. I promise that we’ll make Ashwood pay.”

She placed a hand on Arjun’s broad shoulder.

“Are either of you injured?” Saxony asked. “Karam?”

By the spirits, the way that girl said her name made everything in Karam shake. Feel weak and strong at the same time. She wanted nothing more than to kiss her. Between the not-dying and the rowing between cities, it had been far too many days of not kissing Saxony.

But it was taking all of her strength not to cry and so she stayed focused on that instead.

“Do you two need to be healed?” Saxony asked again.

“I am fine,” Arjun said. He moved forward, hand on his sword. “And I am ready for battle.”

“Whoa there, soldier.”

Wesley pushed past Saxony and Tavia to place two firm hands on Arjun’s chest to hold him back.

“The war is taking a break right now,” Wesley said. “And so should you. I get wanting to smash everything, but you’re not going to be much use to anyone unless you get some rest.”

Arjun’s jaw shook.

*Don’t cry*, Karam thought selfishly. *I couldn’t bear it if you cried again, Arjun.*

“I’ll show you to a comfortable room and we can get you cleaned up,” Wesley said.

Those words were such a surprise to Karam that when Arjun accepted with a curt nod and the two walked back inside the estate, she could only blink in surprise.

Perhaps what Arjun needed wasn’t a friend who shared in his pain, but someone who could let him grieve alone.

“You need some rest too,” Saxony said, holding on tightly to Karam’s hand.

“Yeah,” Tavia said. “I wasn’t kidding when I said you looked like crap.”

Karam tried for a laugh, but she was aching too much, both inside and out.

“Actually, I need a moment to speak to Tavia alone,” Karam said.

“Tavia?” Saxony asked. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Tavia said. “Me?”

Karam nodded. “It is important.”

“Okay,” Saxony said, though Karam could tell she was confused.

Karam wanted nothing more than to fall asleep in her arms and to tell her how much she had missed her, but Tavia needed to know about the vision Karam had seen first, and telling someone they were going to die required privacy.

“I’ll help Wesley take care of Arjun,” Saxony said. “We’ll fill you in on everything that’s happened later.”

She kissed Karam’s cheek softly and followed after the others, until Karam was left alone with a baffled Tavia.

“I have to tell you something,” Karam said. “Arjun used an extraction on one of our attackers and it showed us a vision.”

She wasn’t sure how to phrase the next part with any kind of tact. So she simply looked at Tavia and said, “Zekia is going to kill you.”

Tavia took a moment to stare blankly and then swallowed and said, “Kill me? Are you sure?”

Karam nodded.

“When?”

She was taking it better than Karam had expected.

“I do not know,” Karam said.”We were on a bridge somewhere. I think it might have been in Creije.”

“What a homecoming,” Tavia said.

She bit her lip, as though she didn’t know what else to do.

“I am sorry,” Karam said.

What else could she say? She could promise to keep Tavia safe, but those words would sound so hollow right now.

“Don’t tell Wesley.”

“What?”

“Don’t tell him,” Tavia said again. “He thinks he can get through to Zekia and if he finds out about this, then he’ll stop trying. We can’t let him do that.”

“And he will lock you up in a room made of cushions,” Karam agreed. “He will not let you go anywhere near Ashwood or Zekia.”

“Exactly,” Tavia said. “Which is why he can’t know.”

“Understood. But when Saxony finds out—”

“You can’t tell her, either.”

“I am not lying to Saxony,” Karam said.

Tavia’s eyes were firm.”Yes, you are,” she said. “You know as well as I do that she can never find out. That’s why you asked to speak to me alone.”

Karam couldn’t deny the truth.

They didn’t know how Wesley would react with Tavia’s life on the line, and as much as Karam hated to admit it, Saxony couldn’t be trusted when it came to her sister. She had a history of refusing to see the worst in Zekia, and if it came down to her sister’s life or her friend’s, Karam wasn’t sure who Saxony would choose.

Saxony couldn’t face the harsh truth that Zekia might not be worth saving.

It would be up to Karam to do what needed to be done, before Tavia’s life was sacrificed. It was her job as one of the sole surviving descendants of the Rekhi d’Rihsni. Saving Crafters and the world had to be more important than saving just one person.

*I will protect my friends*, Karam thought. *No matter what.*

“Okay,” Karam said. “We keep this between us and Arjun.”

She clutched the pendant, tied tightly around her neck.

This was the way for her to redeem herself for the mission gone wrong. She would respect Tavia’s wishes and do whatever it took to make sure that vision never came true.

Karam would not give their enemies any more chances.

If it came down to Tavia or Zekia, then she knew what she’d have to do.

And she wouldn’t hesitate.