Page 87 of These Divided Shores
“What are you saying, then?” Nayeli asked. “Because that’s what this will be. We’re forcing magic on him. It’storture, and you know it.”
“Don’t you want Cansu back?” Rosalia cocked her head at Nayeli. “She’d be heartbroken to hear you weren’t doing everything possible to save her.”
“Shut up.”
“That defensor is Argridian. He’s an enemy.” Rosalia stomped for the door. “I’ll get Nate and Pierce to grab him. Elazar’s almost to my city.My city.I don’t have time for morals.”
Lu was leaning against the table by the time Nate and Pierce hauled Jakes into the shack.
She had watched revolutionaries die from Argridian bullet wounds, or hung from the walls of ports, or burnedon stakes. She had spied for her parents, killed for Tom, because Argridians were enemies. They were heartless, and evil, and that made them inhuman.
So it was all right that Lu had killed them. It was all right that she would experiment on this one, Jakes, because he was an enemy. Just like Tom had taught her.
If this potion worked, it would make her strong enough to defeat Elazar and save Grace Loray. It would let her save Teo.
Nate shoved Jakes into the middle of the room. Manacles clamped his arms behind his back, and he stumbled to keep from falling into the smoking fire.
When he looked up, his eyes locked on Lu. “What is happening?” he asked in stunted Grace Lorayan, his accent thick. He knew he was outnumbered, even if he didn’t know the why or the how, and his throat worked on a hard swallow.
Nate kicked the backs of Jakes’s legs, sending him to his knees. “Fatemah’s raiders have been questioning him all morning. Most of his information is stuff we already know. The Tuncians handed him over—seems they were happy to find a use for him.”
Jakes hung his head.
Nayeli pinned Lu with a look. “Go ahead. Give him the magic.” There was a dare in her voice, not to do it.
Lu pushed back from the table and picked up one of the vials. Her hand shook.
She had no idea what it would do. What abilities it would give him, if any.
A low, rhythmic noise emanated from Jakes. Humming?
Lu frowned. Nate grabbed Jakes’s chin and jerked his head back, readying his mouth to open.
The humming cut off. Jakes’s eyes went to the vial in Lu’s fingers.
Understanding made his eyebrows raise. “It’s all right,” he told her, sweat beading on his forehead. “I understand why you have to do this. I want it, too, believe it or not.”
Lu held her frown. “If you think you can take permanent magic back to Elazar—”
“I won’t.” He inhaled, and Nate jerked his grip on Jakes’s neck tighter. “Elazar turned on me after the Port Camden prison escape because I told him I let you go. I couldn’t... he isn’t the future. I will go where either you or Ben are. You two will end this war. You two are the future.”
Nayeli stepped up beside Lu. “What? Wait—no, still confused.What?”
“Didn’t you swear loyalty to Elazar?” Lu pressed. “You are a defensor of the Church.”
“I swore loyalty to Argrid.” Jakes nodded at the vial in her hand. “Do what you must.”
He closed his eyes with a deep breath.
Nate glanced at Pierce with a baffled squint. Jakes must have stopped fighting him. Sure enough, Nate backed away, and Jakes stayed on his knees, eyes closed, head tipped up.
Rosalia looked just as perplexed. But it was a murderous, dark confusion, a reflection of her impatience in FortChastity. How she had unflinchingly shot Tom.
Jakes started humming again. Lu wanted to question him more, to figure out why he was accepting this experiment—this torture—
She recognized the song.
“All this,” she started, “and you hum a revolution song?”
