Bones of Salt

Jonathan

Jonathan was sure Minx Morris had not simply lost it like Matias had put it. He knew how to exploit their weaknesses. It was the reason why he'd told Atticus he wasn't good enough just before he killed him.

It was the reason why he told Jonathan that he'd have to join him if he wanted to hear the whole story. Minx wasn't counting on the fact that Jonathan wouldn't have followed him for all the knowledge in the world, but something kept gnawing at his insides – a deep desire to find out the secrets Minx was hinting at. Was Jonathan's father involved in some way? Diego Loreta used to know Minx Morris, or so the tutor had said.

But there wasn't time to think. Right after Jonathan saw Atticus' body being impaled, he unsheathed his sword and stuck it in Minx' shoulder.

Unluckily, the older Blood Drinker was more handy in a fight, and more prepared, so he took Jonathan by surprise and made a cut on his arm. If the blow had been a bit deeper, it could have risked sawing the limb off. That was when Matias asked the others to stand back for a minute and let Mira fight.

"Unluckily," Matias said. "I'm the only one who can use their Skill."

So, that was how Matias was managing to look calm and unscathed during the fight. Jonathan had been wondering.

"Minx made Jonathan use his Skill in training, and that's the kind one can use once a year," Matias added. "I'm sure it was premeditated. Cypress' Skill is Finding. If one of us goes missing, then maybe she can use it."

Jonathan tried to steal a look at Roman. The Speaker was either looking at Atticus, or looking into the void. It was hard to tell which one it was.

Matias dropped his head in his hands, finally looking as defeated as the rest of them. He murmured something about Athanasios, and about his purpose, and about having been bought to join Minx' army against the humans. Jonathan understood why it was so upsetting – Matias respected humanity and he loved humans. Joining the Court had always been his second dream. His first would have been to stand up for human rights.

Jonathan, too, would have liked to make the world a better place than the one he'd grown up in. Perhaps if Minx had paid more attention to them when he was their tutor, he would have noticed things like that.

For a terrible second, Jonathan had felt pleased because of Minx' words. Then, he thought, it was not all an act. The tutor really found him valuable. Until he noticed it was the same as it had been with Pablo, and as it had been with everyone else – people who wanted to use Jonathan and didn't care about him as a person.

"We should divide and conquer," Matias said at last. No one had complained, before, that he'd been acting as leader. But his latest suggestion seemed to wake Roman from his thoughts, and earned him a frown from Cypress.

"Because it always ends well," she replied.

"No, listen to me. We don't need to lose any more people after Atticus," Matias said, and for the first time it seemed that the sadness the others were feeling had dawned on him. "Cypress and Jonathan, you should look for Cypress' relatives and stop them. I'm asking Cypress because it's her family, and you, Jonathan, because of your arm. Someone, either Evangeline or the people at the Sanatorium, should look at it."

Jonathan supposed Matias was right. The cut was so deep that Jonathan had already decided that the reason he wasn't feeling any pain was that the entire limb must have gone numb.

But he said, stubbornly, "I'm not letting a paper cut keep me from fighting. I'm a good swordsman, and you need me here. I can fence just as well with my left arm."

"This is not a papercut," Roman finally said. "Don't be pig-headed."

Cypress didn't like the idea of leaving either, but they both had to admit Matias' words made sense.