“People have treated Aenuks like they ain’t real people for centuries. But they are. Treat them like toys and you will get burned. Here is where you pick a side. I ain’t gonna tell you which. And I ain’t gonna talk up our chances of winnin’. You know Llew’s mission and you know who and what we’re up against. We invited you to stay and help, and you threw that back in our faces. There are no more chances.

  “There may be nations at stake here, but ’sfar as I’m concerned, this is between me and Braph. Quaver might be about to crumble thanks to his machines. Whether Turhmos takes it as a chance to rise ain’t somethin’ I got the energy to wonder. And Brurun … Whatever comes, they’re caught in the middle. Llew has a plan that might save Quaver, or it might not. It might prevent a war, or it might start one. We’re fightin’ for our lives, and our families. And Llew demands your loyalty. You’re either with us, or you’re gone.”

  He felt Llew’s quizzical glare but kept his firmly on the two before him.

  “There’s nothin’ you can pin your promises to that’ll convince us your words are true. Anythin’ you say now will ring hollow. Only your actions from here on out will speak for you.”

  “Understood,” Karlani murmured, then raised her head and voice. “I— I’m sorry. You’re right. It was stupid and foolish. And my idea. I won’t waste your time trying to excuse it. All I can do is promise I won’t do it again.”

  Jonas hissed a single laugh between his teeth. The promise as empty as he’d expected. Karlani had no loyalty to Quaver, no connection to Phyos, and she’d left her family behind in whatever place she was from. No land and no lives to put on the line for anything.

  “You’re right,” Karlani repeated. “My promises mean nothing after everything I’ve done. So, I guess I won’t make any.”

  Damned right. Jonas only expressed the thought with a raised eyebrow, curious to hear how Karlani would make it more palatable for Llew to offer the blood required to return her Syakaran powers this night.

  Karlani took a deep breath. “Ll— Llewella?”

  “Llew.” Jonas and Llew insisted in unison.

  Jonas glanced Llew’s way, the urge to laugh rising in the back of his throat, but the dark and ill twist to her mouth was a kick to the gut. His brother had taken that name from her.

  “Llew.” Karlani held Llew’s gaze earnestly. “I won’t ask for forgiveness. For any of it. I won’t excuse the choices I made up until this point. I can tell you I’m changed, but I understand why you won’t believe me. So, I make no promises. I only beg for the chance to experience life from my new perspective. I owe you my life. And I know, if you were anyone else, I would’ve paid with it already. I won’t forget that, and I’ll try not to let you regret it.”

  Jonas was inclined to believe that of Karlani. Being brought back to life tended to have an effect on people. He shifted his focus to Alvaro, the only one of the four not to have experienced it. The young man sat, watching Karlani. As silence grew between them, he looked up at Llew and Jonas.

  “Um.” He looked at Karlani again. She ignored him, still imploring Llew. His gaze followed hers. “Ah, yeah. I guess it’s kind of the same for me. I suppose my promises don’t mean much, either. For what it’s worth, you have them, anyway. I won’t act against you again. Either of you.” He flicked a glance Jonas’s way. “I’ve been foolish. I’ll try to do better.” He glanced at Llew from beneath brows hesitant to rise, but couldn’t hold it, instead looking at the ground again and trying to make himself smaller. Not lying, no, but not truly prepared to accept consequences for his actions, either. Still, he had safely escorted Anya to the farm, who had been a light in which Llew had been in much need.

  Jonas turned to Llew. “Do you accept?”

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  “Yeah,” Llew said, and Jonas heard an echo of the words she’d said in Brurun: What choice do I have? Then she firmed her stance. “I accept. With final warning. I offer the power in my blood and the Ajnai trees to you this one last time.”

  “Understood.” Karlani tried for a friendly smile; hesitant, like she didn’t know how Llew would receive it. Llew didn’t appear to, remaining impassive.

  “I understand.” Alvaro continued to try to shrink from attention. Llew watched him a long moment. Just as she seemed to be giving up on expecting more from the young man, Alvaro piped up. “I really am sorry, Llew. I didn’t—. Look, I forgive you for Cassidy, okay?”

  “Do not.” Llew flared with anger. “You have no right.”

  Karlani also turned to Alvaro, her widened eyes imploring him to shut up.

  “My failure to save Cassidy wasn’t about you, and it’s time you let him rest.”

  Jonas shifted. A part of him wanted to reach out and shield Llew, soothe her, but it wasn’t what she needed right then. Indeed, she preemptively shrugged her shoulder, anticipating his touch there. When it came to Alvaro, Llew was always better off going it alone. Alvaro’s disdain for Jonas was complete. Good thing it was an equal relationship.

  “He doesn’t deserve to be used as a weapon for you to keep beating me with. He was a man of good character who I would’ve been proud to call friend had I had the chance to know him better. I thought the same of you, once.”

  Alvaro flinched under her words, but also shrank less, almost like he was grateful to be called out. But he said no more, and Llew returned to a tree, lifting her shirt to expose her back to its bark and re-rolling her sleeve to ensure access to her vein. She sat with her knees up, arm resting across one, closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the trunk.

  Rowan had come outside at some stage during their demands of Karlani and Alvaro. He took a moment to place a couple more pieces of wood into the fire, then came up beside Jonas.

  “Elka said a message came through the trees. Something about Braph?”

  Jonas turned to face the fire, excluding Alvaro and Karlani from his conversation. “Braph has reached the tree we need to get to. The one in Taither.”

  “Shit. Our equipment won’t arrive from Hinden until the day after tomorrow. Or, today?” Rowan glanced up at the sky, but neither he nor Jonas was skilled at time-telling by the stars. Regardless, cloud had rolled in, rendering the sky featureless. “Whatever. He won’t destroy it, will he?”

  “I don’t think so.” Jonas used to think he would never understand his brother, but he was starting to think he did. No, he would never fully comprehend Braph, but he now knew the hunger Braph had for power. He’d felt it himself beneath the ancient Ajnai.

  “Can he access its power like you can?”

  “I don’t think so,” Jonas echoed himself and looked over his shoulder at Llew, who sat shut off from everyone while blood was drawn from her by the syringeful and could only shrug. They would always be able to inject him with Llew’s blood while she healed easily touching an Ajnai. Whether Jonas had enough of a connection with the Taither Ajnai to heal through a direct contact with it was purely hypothetical. Whatever the eventual mechanism, that tree was their final hope.

  Rowan crouched to tend the fire, and let out a groan.

  Jonas was about to ask him what it was when the first rain drop brushed the side of his nose, and another hit the top of his head. Just what they needed.

  And Llew began to laugh.