He hardly gave it a glance. “Just another warehouse,” he answered, grabbing my elbow to urge me forward.
I pulled free. “What kind of warehouse?” I didn’t wait for his answer. I was already walking toward it. I stopped just inside the gaping entrance. It was dark. Cool. My stomach hovered near my heart, everything inside of me light and airless, something taking hold of me, my steps moving all out of order. I was numb, part of me soaring above it all, watching. Three wagons were being loaded. Rope was woven over the tarps—tarps with black stripes. It was the stripes that stopped me. They were sharp nails dragging across my throat.
“Previzi,” Jase said, coming up alongside me. “They operate out of this warehouse.”
An enormous warehouse. I could see rows of other empty wagons stored along the side, waiting to be loaded. By now, several of the workers had noticed us standing at the entrance. I scanned their faces, none the one I searched for.
My skin. My eyes. Floating. Not part of me. My voice, barely mine, sounding like someone I didn’t know. Young, fragile, breakable. A girl too afraid to run.
“But Previzi are illegal,” I said. “They’ve been illegal for years. They’re not allowed in the kingdoms.” My voice still soft. Lost.
Jase hovered in a different world, strong, confident. “Maybe officially, but trust me, merchants in every kingdom eagerly buy from them. They provide—”
I spun, my voice stronger. “Provide what? Stolen merchandise?”
“Sometimes there’s merchandise that—it doesn’t quite—”
“What did you mean by ‘operate’?” I asked.
He looked at me, confused, finally understanding that something was very wrong. “This is their base,” he answered.
Base? “For how long? How long have they been based here?”
“Kazi, what difference—”
“How long?” My voice was loud now, a scream. The air shattered in fragments, every sound sharp in my ears.
“I’m not really sure.”
“Eleven years, Jase? Have they been here for eleven years?”
He nodded. “At least.”
Everything that had been weightless inside me was now molten, rushing in my head, burning my skin. “They’re thieves! You’re harboring thieves! They sell nothing but—”
“Kazi, lower your voice,” Jase ordered between gritted teeth. Workers had stopped loading wagons and were listening. A crowd gathered just outside the door, watching. Jase leaned close. “The Previzi drivers are—”
“Predators!” I yelled. “Scum! And I will not lower my voice! How can you just look the other way—”
“Stop!” Jase ordered. He grabbed my arm and began pulling me away. I twisted free and my other arm swung, hitting him in the jaw. He stumbled back, incredulous, his eyes locked on mine, and then I ran. I was a girl running through the jehendra, through stalls, through shadows and mud and nightmares, a girl running with nowhere to go.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
JASE
I took a few steps, watching her run away, then tasted the blood in my mouth. I touched my hand to my jaw.
“Should we go after her?” Titus asked. He and Gunner had been nearby when the shouting broke out.
I shook my head. “No, let her go.” I already knew they’d never find her if she didn’t want to be found. I was still trying to understand what had happened. I looked at the people who had stopped to watch. All the people who saw the Patrei get smacked in the chops by a Vendan soldier half his size.
And then a voice from behind me.
The wrong voice.
Clucking. Sighing. “Oh dear. A lover’s quarrel? Affection is so fleeting, isn’t it?”
When I turned, Paxton took a step back, his straza a step forward, maybe seeing something in my face.