Cassius misses the desperation in her voice. I don’t.
“Someone has to get him in line,” Cassius says.
The hall floods with fire alarm lights and a clunk comes from the door. The door hisses open and Cassius swims past me with a kravat move. He’s first through the door. I follow, then Aurae. It’s a brutal scene. I’ve encountered worse: nothing will beat the abattoirs Atlas leaves in his wake. But seeing your best friend taking out a man’s teeth with pliers and then electrocuting the exposed nerves is more than a little jarring.
Cassius is at a loss for words. “You…goblin.”
“Go away. I’m working,” Sevro says.
“Sevro, stop,” I say.
“Stop? What? You gave me the look,” he deadpans. “Ain’t this why you brought me? Ain’t this why you always bring me? I don’t mind the dirt. Gotta keep you shiny.” He turns with a sneer. “I asked about Athena’s ships. Had to know they were real.”
I can’t help myself. “And?”
Sevro turns around and smiles at Cassius’s look of disgust. “He’s quiet on the subject. Want me to ask him about Kalyke?” He has a tooth between his pliers.
“Get away from him,” Aurae snaps and shoves Sevro so hard he almost moves. She hurts her wrist, but Sevro steps aside like a courtier to let her pass. Aurae rushes to Diomedes. Cassius, Sevro, and I watch. Cassius looks crestfallen, but not too surprised.
“Cassius, I want you to get out. Aurae…clean him up, but his bonds stay on.” She looks back at me and nods. “Sevro, meet me in my quarters. We need to talk—”
Sevro hurls the pliers at me. I catch them, infuriating him. “I didn’t come out here to slag around. You said you wanted answers. This Raa’s all bluff. Twenty minutes and I’ll give you a diagram of Kalyke. And see if this one’s full of shit.” He stabs a finger at Aurae.
“Not like this,” I say.
“Fine.” He dusts his hands off, and waltzes out of the room.
Cassius is about to go after him. I stand in his way. “You’re enabling him.”
“You want to kick his ass?” I sniff his breath. “Go on then.”
Cassius is off like a bullet. Aurae stares back at me in disbelief. “It’s either now or when we can’t afford it,” I say. “They’re grown men. Let them sort it out.” I look at Diomedes and say to Aurae. “Do you and I have to sort something out?”
She stands and turns. One of her fingers is clearly broken from pushing Sevro. “I am a Daughter of Ares,” she says. “But I am also a person. You would know better than anyone.” She points out the door. “Now go make sure they don’t kill each other.”
I lock eyes with Diomedes. “Fair enough.”
I follow Cassius to find him reaching the bottom of the ramp to the cargo bay. Halfway to the machine shop, Sevro turns on Cassius and draws a knife from his boot. “Rich boy want a tickle too?” The blade is long, lean, and crooked. “I call this one Lysander.”
“Torture your prisoners. Hide behind a knife. You aren’t an Imperator. You’re a lonely little savage is what you are,” Cassius says.
Sevro plays offended. “It’s pronounced Goblin.”
“That man saved my life. He’s injured and a prisoner. It isn’t right…”
“Come again?” Sevro asks. “Sorry, can’t hear you. You’re too deep in the bottle. Echoing sound. Say it louder. Use that big Bellona chest.”
Sevro’s eyes twinkle like a kid’s with matches. These two have anger to exorcise and neither of them has fought anyone since Venus. I can at least try to contain this here. I feel a surge of petulance and contempt for the both of them. I wrestle down that emotion and try to remember what the book says: If you wish to be straightened, you must first be bent crooked.
Let them get bent then. I sit on a crate to observe and make sure they don’t kill one another.
Lyria rushes in, and I motion her to sit beside me. Confused, she heeds me.
“Diomedes is a prisoner of war,” Cassius says with princely dignity. “He has rights.”
Even I roll my eyes.
A sour giggle worms through Sevro’s teeth. It contorts into a chest-heaving laugh. Then it stops as suddenly as it began, his voice weirdly calm. “Your problem, shithead, is that you claw for every chance you can get to be the hero, because you know you’ll always be the villain. Can’t shake that Golden taint.” He winks. “Same reason Aurae will never give you the time of day. You’re stained, boyo.” He grins. “You are such a big pretty nothing. Couldn’t handle your brother dying in the Passage, even though those were the rules you people made. Had to pout. So big, so small. Needy little Bellona. Sad, lonely Cassius. You’re hollow, man. Can’t even stand straight without a woman inflating your spine.”
Sevro wags his knife at Cassius.
“Couldn’t save Julian. Couldn’t protect Quinn, couldn’t keep Mustang intrigued. You’re the shallow end of the pool. Couldn’t save your Sovereign, because you’re a traitor, then you couldn’t join the Republic, because you’re not welcome. Whole Ares thing. But the saddest shit is, you spent years on that Lune brat. Only to have him ditch you for the world that chewed you up and spat you out at the first opportunity he could get. Failures like that only come around once in a lifetime. Darrow’s too nice to tell ya, but hey. That’s what I’m here for.” He pouts. “Gonna go drink to numb the boo boo? You’ll still hate yourself tomorrow, fraud.”
The Lysander insult carves the deepest gash in Cassius’s heart. I feel sad for my friend, for the loneliness in his life after we killed Octavia, after Adrius killed his brother and sister. But I can’t stand up for him. He has to get through his guilt for killing Ares and stand up to Sevro himself.
Sevro’s tirade has the effect he wanted. Cassius takes a fighting stance and goes at him. Sevro sheaths his blade. Fists it is. Cassius feints a left hook, and puts a significant amount of his powerful frame into a line-drive of a right jab. Powerful or not, the jab is affected by the gin he’s had. Sevro is dead sober and spent his whole life baiting bigger men into unwise confrontations. He ducks and puts all his weight into punching Cassius in the testicles. Air gushes out of the bigger man.
Before Cassius can even double over, Sevro lunges up like a frog and brings the crown of his head into Cassius’s jaw. Cassius’s teeth clack together. Cassius doesn’t go out, and it’s a miracle his jaw doesn’t break.
He staggers back and spits out half of a front incisor before squaring up again. Sevro never stops coming at him though and catches him with a flurry of jabs to his left ear, then almost breaks his ankle with a sideways stomp. Harried, Cassius stumbles back after an exchange of elbow strikes and gets some distance with a push kick that lands on Sevro’s lower chest.
“Stop him,” Lyria snarls. “He’s a monster. Stop him.”
“That’s up to Cassius,” I say.
“Look at the Morning Knight,” Sevro mocks and darts forward to daze Cassius with a jab combination that sends blood pouring from Cassius’s nose. “Losing again.” Cassius rushes him. Sevro evades easily and jabs him twice in his right ear. “That’s all you’re good for. Drinking and losing and—” Sevro lines Cassius up for an uppercut. It doesn’t land. Cassius steps into Sevro suddenly, crowding him and making the blow awkward just as he swings his left elbow into the exposed side of Sevro’s head. It hits Sevro’s skull with a crack. Sevro leans with the blow just enough to not get knocked out, but Cassius follows with a swing of his right elbow that hits Sevro in the side of the head. Crack. Sevro stumbles back, dazed, and Cassius delivers a right kick that smashes into Sevro’s guard. Sevro is lifted off his feet, hurled in the air to rebound off a crate. He wheezes for air, holding his ribs.