Nitta beamed. “Exactly. A good time.” She gave a little shimmy in her chair. “What do you think?”
Wren eyed it. “Well,” she said, “Battlechair’s got more weapons—”
“—Which I do love—”
“—And it’s more intimidating-looking—”
“—I do like to be intimidating—”
“—But Lazychair does look more comfortable.”
“Right? It’s so comfortable! Lova put in lumbar support and extra padding for my bony behind. All it’s missing is a cupholder. I should ask her to make one.”
“Maybe wait until tomorrow,” Wren suggested. “If you ask now, I’m not sure she’ll remember.”
“No,” Nitta agreed, watching affectionately as Lova spun in circles with Kenzo and Ruza, the lute abandoned, Khuen and Samira still kissing behind the shield of Samira’s wings. “I doubt she would.”
Wren recollected something then: a heated conversation she’d overheard between Nitta and Lova when Merrin—her heart still pinched at the thought of him, his death vivid in her mind—had first brought Nitta back to the fort.
“You’ve been getting along well,” she said.
“Hmm?”
“You and Lova. You’ve stopped fighting.”
Snatches from that first argument came back to her, jumbled after so long, but Wren had a sharp memory—she’d been trained to notice everything, after all—and she knew what she’d heard, even if she didn’t understand it.
We never told her—
I know that! Do you think she’d still be talking to me if she knew?… What I don’t understand is why.
If you still don’t understand, Lova, you never will.
You owe me no allegiance, Nitta. Neither you nor Bo.
Do you think we ever stopped being Amala?
Lova had exiled Nitta and Bo from the Cat Clan a couple of years ago—over something it seemed she was afraid of Wren discovering.
Nitta’s face turned serious under Wren’s scrutiny. “I told her she’d have to tell you eventually,” she sighed.
“Why did she exile you?” Wren asked. “What does it have to do with me?”
“Everything,” the leaopard-girl said sadly.
As Wren looked back at Lova—who was now in a pile on the floor with Kenzo and Ruza, the three of them laughing—a dark curl of unease rippled through the warm atmosphere.
Nitta clasped her arm. “Not now,” she said. “Let her have this moment, Wren.”
“You make it sound as though I won’t look at her the same way once she tells me.”
“You won’t,” Nitta replied solemnly. “I didn’t, either, not for a long time. But none of our hands are free of blood, Wren. We’ve all made awful decisions for the sake of the ones we love.”
“You haven’t,” Wren pointed out.
Nitta brightened. “Well, not everyone can be as exceptional as me. Shame. The world would be a much better place if it was.”
“Yes,” Wren said sincerely, smiling. “It would.”
She didn’t have to wait long to discover the truth. Lova came to her with it the next morning. Nitta had warned Lova about her conversation with Wren, and so Lova told Wren everything, and Wren listened in silent fury.
When Lova left her room, Wren heard murmuring outside. Then there was a knock.
Nitta came in before Wren had time to respond. “I’m here for damage control,” she said lightly. “I know magic’s gone, so you’re not about to blast half the room apart, but I thought you might be a little angry, and I didn’t think you should be alone in it.”
Wren struggled to breathe. “A little angry?”
“Unless you want to be alone. I don’t want to impose. If it’s what you need, I’ll leave. But I’ve learned anger isn’t always best left to its own devices. It has a tendency to… flourish.”
“She had my mother killed,” Wren seethed, her hands fisted at her sides. “Of course my anger is flourishing. Lova had her killed, and pinned it on the King to provoke my father into starting a war. A war that led to thousands of deaths. That stole away so much from so many. That took—took people I love. Hurt people I love. Broke people I love.”
“That’s all true,” Nitta started, “and it’s terrible, but—”
“No, Nitta. There’s no excusing this!” Wren wished she still had her Xia powers so she could release some of the wrath Lova’s revelation had left her with. “So—what? Lo didn’t want my father to take the King’s place because she didn’t think he’d be a good ruler, either? She didn’t really believe the King’s control could be destroyed from the inside the way my father planned? She wanted a bit of death and drama before it was all over? Is that it?”
“And,” Nitta said patiently, evidently ignoring the part about death and drama.
Wren’s jaw ticked. “And. What.”
“She knew you wouldn’t get away with his assassination unpunished. And she couldn’t bear to lose you.”
Wren jerked away, exhaling sharply. All her life she’d been taught to channel her emotions into her fighting. But now the war was over, what options did that leave her with? How did anyone handle their rage if they couldn’t slice it into shreds?
Wren flinched when Nitta touched her. The leopard-girl prized open Wren’s fist and slotted her hand inside.
“Remember what I said last night,” Nitta told her quietly. “None of our hands are free of blood. We’ve all made terrible decisions to protect those we love—and the things we love. For better or for worse, Lova loves you, and she loves Ikhara, and she thought a war was the only way she could save you both.”
Wren could have laughed. “A war is the last thing that would protect me from death.”
“I don’t think death was the only thing she was trying to protect you from.”
Wren stilled at that. Then, slowly, she sank to her knees. She stared out through the windows over the grounds of the fort, the forest and grasses tinted pink from the early sun. Nitta looped an arm around her shoulders.
“That’s why you and Bo were exiled,” Wren said.
Nitta sighed. “We were thieves of secrets, and we stumbled upon one of our General’s own. We were young and stupid and greedy. Bo thought it would be some sort of power move that would force Lova to promote us within the clan if we came to her with it and made sure she knew we could use the information against her. But she knew better. Bo and I had been raised by our fellow clan members since our parents died in a ground-ship accident not long after we were born. We’d never do anything to hurt them. They were our family. Are my family.” Her lashes dipped. “Still, a challenge against our General couldn’t go unpunished. Lova exiled us—and, I suppose, imagined her secret would be exiled with us. She hadn’t decided yet whether to act on her plans or not. You know, it was just after the two of you met when she learned Ketai was going to plant you in the palace as one of the Paper Girls. She’d been unsure of him before, but that’s what solidified it for her, I think. Knowing he would do that to his own daughter.”