Page 26 of Children of Virtue and Vengeance

ZÉLIE

LIGHT BLEEDS INTOthe blackness of my mind, stirring me awake. I groan as I slip back into consciousness, my body moaning with pain.

My head throbs like a herd of rhinomes warring inside my skull. Fleeting images of the broken dreamscape fill my mind with each ache.

“Hold her down,” a hoarse voice orders when I stir.

I blink open my eyes as blurry faces come into focus. Tzain closes in, blocking out the rays of morning sun. Seeing him brings back the memory of running away with Nailah; of crashing into the tree before I fell into the dreamscape.

“Tzain…” I try to sit up, but he forces me to stay down. Amari appears at his side, applying pressure to my legs though she won’t meet my gaze. A young maji with high cheekbones and wide-set eyes kneels between them, slender fingers pressed to my chest. Thick white braids fall to the small of her back as her hoarse voice continues to chant.

“Babalúayé,?i?é nípasè mi. Babalúayé,?i?é nípasè mi.”

Behind her, two more maji stand guard at the forest perimeter, eyeing the rising clouds of dirt in the distance.

“They’re closing in, Safiyah,” one maji calls. “Be quick.”

“The queen?” I grumble, and the maji shakes his head.

“Her tîtáns.”

The tangerine light around Safiyah’s hands turns dark as she releases more of the ashêin her blood. The spiritual energy heats her fingertips, increasing the strength of her magic.

I feel the drain on my own ashêas a searing heat kneads itself into my chest. A needle of fire threads through my ribs. My muscles spasm with the sudden surge—

Crack!

I flinch as my ribs snap together like reunited magnets. My bones grind against each other as they heal. I have to clench my teeth to endure the burn. Though the pain is sharp, the pressure lifts from my chest; I relish the way my lungs expand. But as cool air comes in, my mind returns to Inan.

He’s still alive.

I bring one hand to my neck, picturing the vines I wrapped around his throat. I don’t know how he survived, but I feel his lifeforce in my gut. My eyes fall on Amari, and I wrestle with what to do next.

How can I tell her that her brother lives after I caused her all that pain?

“Safiyah, let’sgo.”

Sweat drips down the Healer’s brown skin as she removes her hands. Safiyah hangs her head back with exhaustion, taking slow, labored breaths.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “But we have to keep moving. Nehanda’s tîtáns have been rounding up every maji east of Zaria. Entire villages are being imprisoned in Gusau’s fortress.”

Gusau?I think of the village a few days east. I wonder if their maji are locked in chains. If they’re carving into them the way they carved into me.

“Thank you.” I rest my hand on Safiyah’s knee and she smiles.

“My thanks goes to you,Jagunjagun. It’s an honor to heal the Soldier of Death.”

My brows knit at the title as she and the maji move back into theAdichie Forest. No one meets the other’s eye when we’re alone. I force myself to break the tense silence.

“How’d you find me?”

Tzain nods to Nailah, curled at my back. “She came running to us in a frenzy. We flagged Safiyah down after Nailah brought us back here.”

I frown at the shallow gashes in my lionaire’s skin, marks where gravel and branches cut through her golden coat. Her front paw lies wrapped in bandages, swollen from a sprain. Though it hurts, I reach up and pet her snout. She nuzzles me back, rough tongue sliding across my forehead.

I direct her to Tzain and he closes his eyes, wincing as Nailah licks his face. “Is this your way of saying sorry?”

“It is if it’s working.”

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