Decker swallowed. Steadied his voice. “We’re always going to need you, Safi.”
I’m always going to need you.
“This isn’t what I want to do,” she said suddenly. “I don’t want to pour drinks and wash tables and play games my whole life. I need to learn what my parents know, I need to be better. If I’d—if I’d known what to do when everyone got sick, when Cricket got shot—” she stopped herself, her knuckles going white against the blue towel she gripped.
“You did what you could, you did well—”
“And they’re all still dead.” The towel landed with a harsh, wet noise as she flung it at the basin. Silence, sharpness, avoidance—he understood, and still the room gaped between them like a canyon.
Water flushed the floor as he rinsed the mop. “Is anyone going with you?”
Am I going with you? Is someone going to be there to shine your boots and make sure your coffee is black enough?
“Willa. She wants to visit Grace’s grave. Inez will stay here. She promised Laurie she would help him.”
Relief ached like a closed wound. “You’re coming back.”
Safine pressed her bitten lips together, her arms crossed like she was keeping pieces of herself from spilling out. “When I’ve done something for myself, I’ll come back. You’ll be fine until then. I’ve been working on the things you and Laurie brought back from the church and I might have something figured out so you don’t have to kill as often. Some blood invention Whitton was working on.”
A peace-offering between them, for now.
“Thank you,” Decker said softly. Pain latched onto him, deep and sickening, but he pushed it down and set the mop back in the bucket. “We’ll be waiting for you.” Sister Inez, he knew, would be counting the months. She was devout not only in her faith.
Safine blew a limp curl out of her face and brushed one last stray locust from her plain skirts. “I think we need a distraction until these little bastards leave.”
The ache lessened for a moment. “I’m all ears, Safi.”
Laurie’s head snapped up from the journal when they returned.
“Whitton’s taken care of,” Decker said at the expectant looks of Willa and Sister Inez.
“And I’m teaching both of you how to play faro.” Safine emerged from the kitchen with a steaming pot of coffee and a wrapped package. “If the plan doesn’t work, I’d rather go out with coffee and a good drink,” she said, splashing whiskey into her coffee and passing the bottle to Willa who did the same. Safine ceremoniously unwrapped the package to reveal a golden-edged box bursting with chocolates. “It’s from the mercantile—snagged it yesterday. Figured if McKinney was here he’d do the same.”
Decker made a soft sound of agreement, raising his cup. “To McKinney, and Cricket, and those who lived and died for Ender’s Ridge.” He thought of Nathan, of him being ripped apart andsewn back together to becuredand how it killed him. It was a small solace Whitton was gone.
“To revenge.” Willa managed a tired smile and clinked her glass with Safine’s.
Sister Inez cupped her hot cider, dark eyes glinting. “To truth.”
Laurie took his fourth coffee and raised it, casting a glance at Decker. “To us.”
The sound of five different glasses rang into one clear note that drowned out the gnawing eighth plague destroying their town. In theLoose Goose, drinks flowed and the day marched on as Lucy chased stray locusts and hissed when the faro games grew too rowdy.
“You can’t win every time. You’re doing some of your blood-sucking shite,” Willa said as Decker raked in the third pot of the day.
“Just luck, Miss Brooks.”
“He’s been caught cheating before,” Safine said airily, as if it wasn’t a bold-faced lie. He was nevercaughtcheating. It wasn’t his fault he’d been around long enough to memorize how the cards fell.
“I’ll have to hold a special service after this to save Decker,” Laurie said, hiding his smile behind the journal. His stack of papers grew taller, and he shook his hand out from writing.
Decker pushed a handful of bone chips at him. “Give your eyes a break from all the deciphering.”
Laurie hedged. “We don’t have much time.”
“Are you sure, without a doubt, what you’ve found is going to work?”
Laurie pressed his lips together. “No.”