Page 138 of Throwing Fire

“I get that a lot,” I tell him. “Funny how infrequently it ends up being true. What, you think when you found the skimmer burning and the water gone that B or Erin took me and Kez out?”

He swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He’s lost weight in the three weeks he’s been on the run while we’ve healed. His neck’s skinny and his cheeks are hollow. Maybe he’s having trouble sleeping, although that would suggest he has a conscience and I’m not convinced of that. Or maybe he’s run out of Payton’s credits and hasn’t been able to buy three squares a day. That’d be nicely ironic here in the breadbasket of Kuseros.

“It all went bad,” Jaxon mumbles. “I was so close. I thought I had her. But there was nothing but ash.”

The Ojos’s explosives turned out to be pretty effective in that regard. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. They were a Tyng product, after all.

I just didn’t know B’s little operation in Jielt was cranking them out along with a shit-ton of modified Hex.

“You never had her,” I tell him. “She’s mine. She’s always been mine. She was just waitin’ for me to come find her.” I slap the rope against my leg. “You shoulda realized how special she was back on that beach. You shoulda stayed away from her and her friends. You should never, ever have touched what’s mine.”

He holds his hands up. I think he’s just realized he’s out of options. “I can pay you.”

I snort. “You really think you can pay me off?”

His eyes flick from my face to the rope and back. “We can work this out, man.”

“Sure, we can.” I pace steadily toward him. He retreats. If he looked behind him, he wouldn’t be so quick to backstep.

“Look, she killed three of my boys. I couldn’t just let that slide.”

“So you decided to team up with her worst enemy? Peddle the shit she hated, the shit that destroyed her family, across the planet?”

He glances left and right as he backs up, scuffing through the dust he stirred on his advance, still not seeing what’s behind him. I keep my eyes on Jaxon’s sweating face to avoid giving the game away.

“We all gotta earn somehow,” Jaxon grumbles. “Can’t live on air and Two.”

“Live fine on Hex, though, huh?”

“You can talk,” Jaxon sneers. “You’re the biggest Hex peddler in the system.”

I nod, acknowledging his point. “Not for long.” One of the Horse-men standing behind Jaxon stamps his hoof, either in annoyance at how long I’m taking or in disgust at the subject of our conversation. It’s a sore subject; we had a long day yesterday convincing Drogan’s people that we’re shutting down the Hex trade. In the end, like so many things, it came down to Lightfoot and her street cred.

Jaxon whips his head around and sees the line of Horse-men who have closed off the other end of the street.

“I’m leaving!” he snarls at Drogan and his men.

“Not fast enough,” Drogan responds. “Your ten minutes are up.”

Jaxon looks wildly at me, past me, toward the shop where he was hoping to buy his escape.

“Afraid that road’s closed,” I tell him, continuing to advance while he’s frozen between the enemy at his back and the one closing from his front.

“You-you’ve kept me here?—!”

I see the credit’s finally dropped. “Until your time’s run out? Yeah,” I admit. “Although I could argue your time was up a long time ago. You really think you could pop up in Hemos, threaten Kez, and I wouldn’t come after you? C’mon.”

“Erin and B—” he begins.

“Are dead,” I interrupt. Match fried B to get to Acker; Erin bled out with a rope around her neck. “Looks like you’re fresh outta friends.”

“And out of time,” Drogan says. I gotta admit, even I’m a little intimidated by the line of Horse-men. Big fuckers. And they have that light of righteousness in their eyes. “I told you to leave Ystrile to avoid Helas’s judgment. You came to us with a false face, promising friendship, while you conspired with the enemies of Helas to spreadfly-strike throughout Asdel’s Plains. I gave you more mercy than you were due, given your deceit. It is time for you to face Helas’s judgment.”

Jaxon screams. Guess he’s familiar with what Helas’s judgment looks like.

Then he can’t scream because my noose and two others have landed around his throat. I pull my noose tight at the same time that Drogan and one of his Horse-men pull on theirs.

Jaxon’s pulled off his feet. He crashes to his knees, choking and grabbing at the ropes around his neck.