Page 134 of These Divided Shores
Ben and Lu rolled off the platform and raced for the docks as the Mecht raiders’ chanting came louder over the gunshots, louder over the screams of death: “Barbaric.Barbaric.”
29
AFTER EVERYTHING THAThad happened—the lives changed, the plots unveiled—Vex had ended up right back in the New Deza castle’s prison.
It wasn’t the cell where he’d first met Lu. That’d been the high-security wing, fordangerouscriminals—this wing had a door to the courtyard at the end, one Cansu had dragged him through. She’d tossed him into an empty cell despite his begging.
She hadn’t reacted to Nayeli’s name. Hadn’t reacted to Fatemah’s death, or Port Mesi-Teab being attacked. She’d just chucked him in the cell and left like she was some mindless defensor, not a vicious raider Head who could kick Vex’s ass blindfolded, or the woman who drove Nayeli so crazy that Vex’s heart was perpetually broken by extension.
The only thing she did before she left was rip the BudwigBean from his ear, drop it on the ground, and smash it with her boot.
Some part of her still existed. But no matter how Vex shouted, she didn’t come back.
For days after that, the defensors left him alone. Occasionally someone brought him measly rations, and he’d scream at them for news of Teo, or to speak to Elazar—he didn’t want to speak to Elazar, shit—oranythingthat might get someone to tell him what was happening. What the hell had been with all those raiders in the courtyard?And where the hell was Teo?
Vex’s legs throbbed. He paced the length of his cell, trying to work out the spasms, but they came in tight, crippling waves that had him biting back sobs.
Lu’d be out of her mind with worry for him by now. Nayeli, too. Hopefully they’d be on their way to New Deza, ready to confront Elazar on their own and end this whole mess before Vex really did need answers to any of his questions.
Some rescue mission this had turned out to be. God. He’d been so damn certain he could do this, find Teo, solveoneof these problems on his own. But Jakes had shaken him up. Vex hadn’t been focused when he’d gotten here. He’d walked right into it.
Jakes. Vex hoped defensors would drag his sorry ass into this hall at some point. Maybe bruised or black-eyed. A broken rib or two. Yeah. That’d feel like justice.
Imagining Jakes with the shit beat out of him was the only thing keeping Vex upright.
Three days after Vex’d been caught, just as the sun was starting to set, the outside door opened. Four defensors marched down the hall and shifted to the side.
Tomás Andreu walked in behind them, hands behind his back, polished boots spotless.
Vex, who had been sitting against the back wall, didn’t rise when Tom stopped in front of his cell. “Fuck you,” he said in Argridian.
Tom ignored Vex’s outburst and pointed at the doors behind him. “You will accompany me out those doors. You will not run. You will not fight. Though you may have forgotten, you are a Gallego, and you will accept this fate with all the grace and dignity befitting your station. Grace and dignity”—Tom paused, his lips twitching—“that I hear your father did not show.”
That yanked Vex to his feet. “What?”
“Now, I understand you have little reason to obey any of the demands I have made. Let us call this... insurance, then.” Tom snapped his fingers.
Two more defensors came just within the doorway, enough to frame them but not inside the hall. Vex moved to the cell’s bars to see.
Between the defensors, Teo stood, hands clasped before him, eyes downcast and timid as though someone had ordered him to be still and obedient.
Vex yanked on the bars as Tom waved and the defensors pulled Teo out of sight.
“Son of abitch!” Vex screamed. “Let him go!”
“You will not run,” Tom said, speaking as though Vex wasn’t swearing him into the afterlife, as though Teo wasn’t a prisoner too. He seemed exhausted, if anything, worn out by the backbreaking work of destroying lives. “You will not do anything foolish. Understand?”
Sweat washed over Vex’s body, his sight blurring in fury and horror.
Elazar’s voice echoed from the cell in Deza, memories erratic with pain.“Your son has one more eye, brother. Are you certain you have told me all I wish to know?”
Rodrigu’s desperate gulps of air still numbed Vex.“Yes, I swear—stop hurting him—”
“Yes,” Vex told Lu’s father. A piece of his heart shriveled up and died. “I understand.”
Tom’s focus slid to the floor and he absently motioned for defensors to unlock Vex’s cell. Fuming, Vex kept his gaze on Tom’s downcast eyes as defensors obeyed and snapped manacles around his wrists.
“She might have been able to forgive you,” Vex told Tom. “But now? She’llslaughteryou for touching Teo. If you think obeying Elazar is worth losing her, then you never deserved her in the first place.”
