Page 70 of Forge the Blade

Pain so sharp I finally breathe

Rei stopped on the last line of the first chorus. Pain so sharp I finally breathe. That was how Sevastyan had come to him. He knew that feeling. The lyrics went on for two more verses and a rap section. But his sight was blurring.

“I’ll do it. I’ll be crew. They just can’t know who I am.”

“But one day they will, and they’ll feel better knowing you were there with them.”

Rei met Ellisandre’s eyes. “You can’t be sure of that.”

“Why?”

“I’m not what I was, before. They are five now. Su-jin completed them. I’m the ghost.”

“From one ghost to another, sometimes the living still talk to us.” Ellisandre held out their hand. “Let’s go pick up Alice and Ash.”

Rei

Rei fisted his hands against his pant legs. He’d holed up behind the driver’s seat, back pressed against the windowless side of the vehicle. Ellisandre pulled the van up to the sidewalk. A tall man stood waiting with two shorter people. Rei pegged the tall one for security. Of the two shorter people, one appeared to be a young woman, head almost entirely covered in a beanie. The other short person looked male of a similar age with red highlights in his darker hair. Both were bundled in puffy winter coats. Ellisandre pushed the button and the side and back doors of the van opened. The back was mostly cargo space, except for one bench seat in the front on which Rei was situated.

“That’s Alice and Ash. Alice is the girl in the green pants. Ash has the red hair,” Ellisandre said. “Don’t mind the tall guy. He’s just dropping them off.”

“Morning, Elli,” Alice said. Ash and the bodyguard helped her load several suitcases and bags into the back of the van. She clambered to the front from the back. Ash went around to the side and let himself into the front passenger seat. He gave Rei a long look and glanced at Ellisandre.

Alice claimed the other end of the bench seat by Rei. Ellisandre shut the door and raised their hand to the bodyguard who returned the wave and stood back.

“You brought company,” Alice said.

“You’ve met before,” Ellisandre said, pulling into traffic.

Rei kept his hands still and flat on his lap, fighting the need to pull his legs up against his chest. But this wasn’t a gathering of the Merchari. Perfect slave behavior wasn’t going to save him here. His composure broke by a fraction. He pulled one leg up against his chest, hugging it to himself.

“Yeah, but you never gave us a name,” Alice said.

“Not everyone is going to give you a name.” Ellisandre had their eye on traffic.

Alice waited to retort until Ellisandre had navigated a complicated snarl around a car trying to parallel park. “At least have a nickname. They’ll be weirder without a name than with—if they’re helping out today.”

“Fine. Call him Andres.”

Ash snorted and Alice frowned before shaking her head at Ellisandre. “Calling him yours isn’t a name.”

“Not calling him mine. Said to call him Andres.”

“Which is like the last part of your name with an apostrophe s at the end. Same thing.”

Ellisandre smirked at Alice in the rearview mirror. “Can’t prove it.”

“I just did.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

In the front seat Ash put his head in his hands. He twisted around in his seat and met Rei’s eyes. “Hi. Call me Ash. Sorry about these two lunatics. I don’t know if your nickname is worse than mine, but if they call anyone monster, that would be me.”

Rei looked over the slight-looking man. Ash didn’t look scary at all, even with the red hair. He swallowed and raised his hand towards Ash in a small greeting.

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to,” Alice said.

“Andres is still getting used to people,” Ellisandre said. “Go easy.”