I turn fast, expecting Aziza to be right behind me, but she’s not, she’s exactly where I left her. She beckons to me impatiently.
“Come on. Get over here,” she says.
I smile and start to walk towards her slowly.
“Sailor, what’s going on? Why are you stalling?”
Her direct question throws me completely and I find myself lost for words for a moment.
“I… I’m not,” I say.
It comes out so shaky that there’s no way she won’t know it’s a lie. I tense, waiting for her to pounce, but again, she surprises me by laughing.
“Don’t tell me you’re going soft, Sails. You’re afraid to go up there and face the Slip Demons, aren’t you?” she teases me.
“What? No,” I say, surprised she could even think that.
“So tell me what’s going on then,” she says.
She’s still giving me a teasing smile and I know suddenly with absolute certainty that I got it wrong. Aziza isn’t the Horseman. She came down here because she genuinely wanted to have my back. She’s risked her own life to save mine yet again, and I repaid her by thinking she wanted to kill me.
Her teasing smile has faded and she’s looking at me with real concern as I reach her side.
“Sailor? Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on,” she says, serious now.
“I’m not afraid of the Slip Demons,” I start.
“I know. I was joking about that,” Aziza says. “You’re not afraid of anything. I get that much. What I still don’t get is what’s going on here.”
“Nexus told Rye and me that War is a member of the team,” I say.
Aziza’s mouth drops open.
“How could she possibly know that?” she demands.
“I have no idea,” I say. “But I know that once I have the weapon, the Horseman wakes up and will try to kill me. I thought… I thought it was you, Aziza. I wasn’t stalling. I was waiting for you to attack me.”
As I say it, Aziza’s whole body tenses up and her face changes, becoming an angry mask. Before I have time to react, her fist goes up and flies at my face.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: NO SECOND CHANCES
I have a split second to wonder if I made a terrible mistake and Aziza was just lulling me into a false sense of security before she spins away and punches into thin air with a roar. She whirls back to face me and the fight goes out of me as quickly as it went out of her when I see her face. She doesn’t look angry. She looks sad.
“I can’t believe after everything we’ve been through together, Sailor, you would think so little of me. I know I’m not exactly warm and fuzzy, but haven’t I proved my loyalty to you time and time again? Haven’t I risked my life for this mission?” she says, her voice breaking slightly.
“It’s not like that, Az. It’s not personal,” I say.
“It feels personal,” she says.
I nod my head.
“Yes, I imagine it does, but believe me when I say it isn’t. I didn’t think, oh the Horseman must be Aziza because she’s not all hearts and flowers,” I say. “And never for a second have I questioned your loyalty to me, the team, or the mission. The person the Horseman has inhabited wasn’t given a choice. Nexus said because you guys are gods and so powerful it’s not like the humans.”
“What do you mean?” she asks with a cocked eyebrow.
“The humans, being weaker physically and mentally, once inhabited are pushed inside themselves and slowly die off until they are fully controlled, like Jenny. She was small, innocent, and unable to fight him off. But you guys as gods, and the Horseman isn’t stupid. He knew he had to bide his time to infiltrate, so instead of taking over and trying to push your subconscious down, he got in and just watched. He is waiting until I have the weapon—that’s when he will be the most dangerous. Whichever member of the team is possessed may not even realize it. I’m not saying someone has betrayed us. I’m saying someone is being used.”
She gives a soft laugh.
“So why did you think it was me?”
“Well I figured that whoever it was would want to kill me as soon as possible once I had the spear. And that they would be desperate to lead me to it so they could get it over with. You were so adamant about searching the desert and then you wanted to be the one to come down here. And…”
“It’s okay, I’ve heard enough,” Aziza says, raising her hand. “I get it. But I came down here so you could have your best chance of surviving if something attacked us. And I insisted on going with Jinx to scope out the area because he has a habit of going in half-cocked and he would most likely have gotten himself killed if I let him go alone.”
At her mention of Jinx, we exchange a look and I know she’s thinking the same thing I am. If it’s not her, then it has to be Jinx.
“Do you want me to take him down? He won’t expect anything from me and I can end this before it’s begun,” she says. “I’ll knock him unconscious and you just have to use the spear to finish him off.”
I shake my head quickly and she goes on.
“I can do it if you want me to. I know Jinx and I fight a lot, but deep down, he’s a good guy you know. And if he thought for a second the Horseman could use him to hurt you, he would ask me to do this.”
I debate for a second how much I should reveal, but I’ve told her this much, I might as well tell her it all. And after I’ve just accused her wrongly of being the Horseman, I want her to know why I’m saying no to
