ItCP47

## Chapter 47

SPOILER WARNING*Selestra foresaw that the page "ItCP47" may include spoilers about a number of topics covered on Alexandra Christo Verse, She warns you to proceed with caution.*
**Chapter 47** of **Into the Crooked Place** follows **Tavia**.

## **About**

### **Characters**

* **Tavia Syn**
* **Wesley Thornton Walcott**
* **Saxony Akintola**
* **Karam Talwar**
* **Arjun**
* **Zekia Akintola**
* **Dante Ashwood**
* **Asees**
* **Gael**

## **Full Version**

TAVIA DANGLED HER BARE feet over the side of the train.

Magic was still in the air, though they’d left the ruins of the Kingpin’s castle at the bottom of Ejm Voten a week before its death somehow followed them.

The seas were calm, which was more than Tavia could say for herself or anyone else. Barely half of their army made it out alive and their new crew was made up of too many of the Kingpin’s people for anyone to relax.

The time charges had turned the tide in their favor, but by the time Arjun had set them off, many were already dead. And though some of the Kingpin’s Crafters were under the influence of the Loj, though some they saved, many more were killers through and through. With the exception of the sixty they took aboard the train—who still had everyone on edge—the rest were left to perish. Or perhaps escape, if they knew the way.

Just like Zekia and Wesley.

Wesley, who was a Crafter.

Not just a vessel, but a bona fide spell-slinging Crafter.

It didn’t make a lick of sense. Except, the more Tavia thought about it, the more she found that it did. Wesley was the youngest underboss in the realms. He had more power than anyone she knew, and magic seemed to adapt and shape itself to him, like an old friend.

Even the orb that Tavia was sure had been a fraud had accurately predicted their time charges because Wesley had a hand in creating it. His Intuitcrafter magic seeping inside, connecting it to him, a thread of his power pulling tight.

Tavia sighed.

She needed to stop thinking about it.

Only, it wasn’t so simple. She wanted to know what Zekia and the Kingpin were going to do with Wesley now that they had him. And what in the fire-gates they were going to do with Tavia and the army she was carrying aimlessly across the sea.

She wanted to know how Wesley’s identity had been kept secret for so long. Spell or no spell, how did they not figure it out? Both of them were so busy trying to score points against each other that they couldn’t even see what was right in front of them.

Tavia wondered if Wesley would have told her, if he knew. She wondered why his family did it. *Killed*, Saxony said, using blood magic to conceal Wesley from himself and the realms. Tavia wondered if they were still alive somewhere to ask.

She cursed herself.

She really could not stop thinking about it. But if she stopped thinking about Wesley, the only thing left to think about was her muma, and that was a punch to the heart that would not cease.

Her muma’s life had meant little more than a rat’s would to the Kingpin. She had simply been an experiment, a test for him to perfect his awful magic.

“Want a drink?”

Tavia turned from her thoughts to Karam.

She approached, a blade in one hand like she wasn’t quite ready to believe they were out of the war zone, and a bottle of Wesley’s alcohol in the other.

Karam had healed since the battle, but magic couldn’t undo everything, and the scar running in a vertical slash from her head to her collarbone was faint, but visible. Tavia knew there was no more pain, the magic had seen to that, but she winced for Karam nonetheless.

“How’s Saxony?” Tavia asked.

“Alive.”

“Shame she wasn’t unconscious for a little longer.”

“You are not really angry at her,” Karam said.

“Actually,” Tavia corrected, “I really am.”

Karam took a seat beside her, leaning back on her elbows. She placed the Cloverye bottle perilously between them.

The label was slightly torn. Wesley would’ve hated that.

“Any thoughts on when we might stop?” Karam asked. “Or where?”

“Since when did I become captain of a runaway train?”

“Since you are Wesley’s best busker and Wesley is not here. I think that makes you second in command. I doubt the buskers will follow anyone else.”

“You’re not interested in the job?”

Karam shrugged. “Maybe later.”

Until then, it would fall on Tavia’s shoulders, which was not a responsibility she was gunning for.

“Whether we’re depleted or not, we can’t let the Kingpin go through with his plans,” Tavia said. “There’s no way Ashwood will stop at Doyen of Uskhanya, and even if he did the amount of people he’d have to kill to secure his rule would be astronomical. It’d turn our home into a prison realm.”

“Where does that leave us?” Karam asked. “The Kingpin was going to be hard to kill before we knew Saxony’s sister was with him. And definitely before our underboss joined his ranks.”

Tavia stiffened. “Wesley didn’t join him.”

Whatever happened back on the island, Zekia made him do it. Tavia couldn’t afford to think otherwise and she definitely couldn’t afford to doubt whether Wesley would come back.

It was not possible for that to be the last time they saw each other.

“The Kingpin ran when he found out we had time, which means there are forces that can hurt him, maybe even kill him,” Tavia said. “If we can just figure out how, then I know we can win. All we need is Saxony’s help.”

“We had Saxony’s help and it did not end well.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Tavia said. “She can help us in a way she wasn’t willing to before.”

Saxony’s problem was always Wesley, and as much as Tavia hated to admit it, he wasn’t in the equation right now. If they were going to take on the Kingpin without him, then they needed the politicians Ashwood threatened to oppose. They needed the officials to officially step in and they needed as much magic as they could get.

Not just some rebels from Granka and Creijen buskers too afraid of Wesley to say no. They needed real fighters. People who had a stake in this battle, the same way Karam, Saxony, and Tavia did. They had to recruit people out for blood and revenge. Who weren’t just following orders or trying to do the right thing, but who needed the Kingpin dead, whether it be for vengeance or power.

“Saxony has to take us to Rishiya,” Tavia said. “We’ll set up base there and gather her Kin. We’ll gather every Kin hiding in Uskhanya. Just like the Grankans need to gather every Wrenyi Kin. We even assemble the Kins of Volo. We rally all three magic realms and find people who have a true vendetta against Ashwood. I was wrong before. We can’t win with just good intentions. And after we have all that magic, we go straight to the Doyens. All four of them. We bring them into this war properly, rather than letting them watch from the sidelines like Schulze tried to. And we let them know that they better choose the right side.”

There was no other option. No going back. With Wesley by Ashwood’s side, even as a prisoner, the next move would be to take Creije completely. The Kingpin would sack the city and work his way through Uskhanya one piece at a time, until he got to Fenna Schulze.

They couldn’t wait for that. They had to get to the Doyen first, send a bat to the Halls of Government in Yejlath and warn her of the dangers. They would offer her a true alliance in this fight.

“*Hei reb*.” Karam let out a long breath. “Do you have anything positive to say?” There was an unlikely smile on her face. “We may not have won the war, but we won a good fight.”

Tavia laughed. It was absurd to be smiling, but just that very thing seemed to lift a weight off her chest. Karam was right. There was a long way to go, but they had faced the Kingpin of Uskhanya and survived. They had him on the run. Whatever happened next, that was still a victory to be celebrated.

Karam sheathed her knife, finally, and twisted open the bottle of Cloverye.

“Drink up,” Karam said. “You will need strength.”

She handed the first taste to Tavia, who took it gratefully.

As the night went on and the stars faded into the black, they took turns having swigs, until the bottle was half-empty and the moon grew dim.

They had a destination and they had a plan, and that was enough for now. Once they reached Rishiya and found Saxony’s Kin, a new battle would start, but until then, Tavia allowed herself to stop thinking and enjoy the fact that they were here.

They were alive.

And she planned to keep it that way.