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“Peace?” Jost echoes with a laugh.
I think of the people who have been ripped, the neatly organized proof in storage at the Coventry, the look of defeat on my father’s face as he tried to shove me into the tunnel the night the Guild came to claim me. No part of me wants to laugh.
Jost grabs my arm. “Ask Adelice. Ask her what it’s like to rip someone from Arras. Ask her if it’s peaceful for them.”
I open my mouth to protest being dragged into the middle of this, but Jost doesn’t wait for me to respond to his point.
“Or better yet, ask me, Erik. Ask me what it was like to see it happen.” Jost’s voice drops down and trails off. None of us speak. ?
??I watched it. I saw her slip away piece by piece. I watched as they took her away from me.”
“I’m sorry,” Erik offers. He sounds sincere, but even I know his words are far from enough.
Jost shakes his head slightly as if to clear his thoughts and looks out into the dark. “Rozenn was better than any of us. You or me. So was our mother.” He pauses. “And my daughter.”
Erik’s shock registers like a slap across the face. “Daughter?” he mouths. No actual sound comes, but the heaviness of the word presses on my chest, and judging from their expressions, they feel it, too.
“You missed out on a lot when you took off.” Jost’s words are dismissive, but he doesn’t look away from Erik.
“You could have telebounded me,” Erik insists. Now he’s the one who sounds accusatory.
“And what?” Jost asks. “You would have come to visit? You didn’t come when Dad got sick or I got married. I knew where we stood with you when you left to serve the Guild. Your family couldn’t help you move forward politically, so we were of no use to you.
“You wouldn’t have cared,” Jost continues. “You were busy cozying up to Maela, following her orders like the perfect Spinster’s errand boy. Just like you’ve been busy weaseling your way into Adelice’s heart.”
I should put a stop to these accusations before they kill each other, but part of me wants to see how Erik reacts. I know how Erik feels about Maela, the power-hungry Spinster he worked for at the Coventry. Erik and I both counted her as an enemy. Jost’s charge sends a thrill through me, because deep down I always suspected Erik’s reasons for getting close to me were about more than friendship.
“But that backfired when Ad brought you here. All that work you did to get to the top is gone. You’ll never convince them that you’re loyal again. You’re through with the Guild,” Jost says.
Erik’s face contorts into a mask of rage. “You barely know me or why I came to the Coventry, but don’t let that stop you from making unfair accusations. It’s rather entertaining, and it doesn’t look like there’s much else to do around here,” he spits back.
“There is a lot to do around here and fighting isn’t on the list,” I intercede, before things get more out of control. “Save your personal problems for later, we have work to do.”
“What do you have in mind? Rebuild the city?” Erik asks. “Or should we skip to the repopulating part?”
“Shut up,” Jost commands. “You aren’t funny.”
“Why? That’s the nice part of getting stuck on a completely forsaken piece of dirt.”
“You better hope that you find someone to help you do it then, because she’s taken. I’m sure there’s a nice dog around here somewhere. Maybe you should stick to your own species,” Jost says.
I’m between them before Erik releases his fist, and I barely cringe when I see it moving toward my face.
Jost catches Erik’s fist, and Erik freezes. But his surprise at my near-disastrous intervention is quickly replaced by a glare, leveled directly at his brother.
“We’re going to check things out,” Jost says through gritted teeth.
“Suit yourself,” Erik says. “I certainly don’t need you here, moping about the joint.”
Jost grabs my arm, a bit more roughly than usual, and drags me from the shack. I pull out of his grasp, my hand flying to rub my throbbing skin.
“That hurt,” I inform him.
He stares at me for a moment and then his eyes soften. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Erik just—”
“I know,” I say quietly, “but I’m not Erik. Don’t take it out on me.”
He nods his apology and I take his hand to let him know we can drop it. We have more important things to worry about right now.
