Page 116 of Children of Blood and Bone

I cannot decide whether this should give me hope. Together, Zélie and Inan could find us. But at the rate they were fighting, one of them might already be dead.

“Run out of lies?” Kwame asks. “Good. Tell the truth. How did you find us? How many of you are there? What’s a noble like you doing with a scroll like this?”

A scroll like this?

I dig my nails in the dirt.Of course.Why didn’t I notice right away? Kwame didn’t bat an eye when said I wanted the scroll to bring magic back. And though he’s a divîner, touching it for the first time doesn’t make his magic react.

Because this isn’t the first time he’s held it.…

In fact, it might just be the thing he and his fellow masked vigilantes are after.

“Listen—”

“No,” Kwame cuts me off, and moves to Tzain, ripping the bag from his head. Tzain is barely conscious, his head lolling to the side. Anxiety grips my chest as Kwame holds the bone dagger to Tzain’s neck.

“Tell the truth.”

“I am!” I shriek, pulling against my bonds.

“We need to get Zu.” Folake backs up to the entrance of the tent, as if distance absolves her of this horror.

“We need the truth,” Kwame yells back. “She’s lying. I know you see it, too!”

“Don’t hurt him,” I beg.

“I gave you a chance.” Kwame tightens his lips. “This is on you. I won’t lose my family again—”

“What’s going on?”

My eyes snap to the tent’s entrance as a young girl enters, her fists clenched. Her green dashiki sits bright against her coconut-brown complexion. Her white hair settles around her head, big and fluffy like a cloud. She can’t be more than thirteen, but Kwame and Folake stand to attention in her presence.

“Zu, I wanted to get you.” Folake speaks quickly.

“I wanted answers first,” Kwame finishes. “My scouts saw them by the river. They had the scroll.”

Zu’s dark brown eyes widen as she grabs the parchment from Kwame and scans its weathered ink. The way she runs her thumb over the symbols gives me all the confirmation I need.

“You’ve seen this scroll before.”

The girl looks at me, taking in the cuts on my skin, the shallow gash on Tzain’s forehead. She fights to keep her face blank, but the corners of her lips turn into a frown.

“You should’ve woken me.”

“There wasn’t time,” Kwame says. “They started moving. We had to act or they’d be out of our range.”

“They?” Zu asks. “There were more of them?”

“Two others,” Folake answers. “They got away. And Jailin…”

“What about him?”

Folake exchanges a guilty look with Kwame. “He still hasn’t returned. There’s a chance he’s been taken.”

Zu’s face falls. The scroll wrinkles in her grasp. “You didn’t go after him?”

“There wasn’t time—”

“You don’t get to make that call!” Zu rasps. “We don’t leave anybody behind. It’s our job to keep everyone safe!”

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