Page 55 of Voidwalker
“You were there for the explosion?” Boden’s pastry lay forgotten. His brow, worry-creased tenfold. “Are you all right?”
“I—”
“What happened?” Kashvi demanded.
“Give her a moment,” Boden countered.
“Amoment, Boden?” Kashvi slammed a hand to the table. “Your sister blew up the capitol building in a daeyari’s city. Who woulddothat?”
“They were working for Verne.”
Another silence. Iliha crossed the room like a wraith, settling a hand on the back of Kashvi’s chair. Three pairs of eyes locked on Fi.
“Verne?” Kashvi hissed. “Thedaeyari, Verne?”
“The governor’s dead.” Fi forced words through a sandpaper throat. “And Antal… removed. Verne plans to claim this territory for herself.”
More silence. Fi had to keep talking, had to rid herself of every wretched detail before they ate her insides. “I don’t know how much you’ve heard, whether Verne has announced her intentions yet. I wanted to warn you—”
Kashvi’s chair legs scraped as she stood. “Warn uswhat? That you might have doomed us all?” She ran a hand through her hair, dark strands damp with melted ice. “Void have mercy, Fi. What have you done?”
“Kashvi,” Boden chided. “There’s no need—”
“Smuggling capsules into a government building?” Kashvi continued. “What did youthinkthey were for? A birthday party?”
“I didn’t know!” Fi clawed her hands against the table. Kashvi was right. Every damn word was right, and Fi hadn’t thought this through, and she couldn’t roll over like a coward again. She was supposed to be better now. “I did what they hired me for. To earn a shit ton of energy chips forthisvillage.”
“Energy chips? What good will those do us, when a daeyari comes…”
Kashvi hunched into a rasping breath, silver-veined hands bracing the table.
Iliha was at her side in an instant, urging Kashvi back into her seat, gentle hands nudging the tea mug closer. Kashvi brushed a tender hand down Iliha’s arm then breathed in the steam.
Boden stared at his hands. At Fi.
His incessant worry, she could stomach.Thisstruck every fear she’d had about telling him—that hard look that told Fihewas the older sibling.Hewas the responsible one holding their lives together. And she was the batty, reality-skipping sister who’d unleashed a man-eating monster upon their home.
“I’m glad you aren’t hurt,” Boden said. “Are yousure, Fi? About Verne being behind this?”
“Isawher, Bodie.” Fi’s voice came out too small. “Barely got away alive.”
“This is absoluteshit,” Kashvi groaned.
Boden slumped in his chair. “I’ll… try to get more information. Reach out to contacts in Thomaskweld. For now, we should be cautious. Iliha? Could you send a telegram to Yvette and their metalworkers, suggest they delay any trips they might have planned to the capital?”
Iliha appraised her wife. Only after a nod from Kashvi and another press of the mug into her hands did Iliha glide away into the hall.
A temporary solution. Nyskya could avoid sourcing supplies from Thomaskweld, for now. They shouldn’t have to. Theyshouldbe able to ask their capital city for aide, without fear of repercussions.
“What are we going to do?” Fi asked. Something to fix this. Anything to not have ruined another home.
“Nyskya will ride it out,” Boden said. “We’re remote enough, we can let politics run their course in Thomaskweld. No need to panic until we see where the pieces land.”
“I came here to get away from daeyari,” Kashvi rasped. “Weall did. That man-eating monster in charge of this territory was bad enough. Now we have to survive a new one?”
Fi frowned at the description of Antal. She shouldn’t have. Just… strange, to reconcile “man-eating monster” with the gloomy cat slumped in her bathtub.
“What else do you want us to do?” Boden asked. “Write a petition?”
