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The Hummingbird was amazing. A little ship—that flew. Wylan was entranced by the whole idea. As it skated across the sky, he wanted to be standing next to Jesper, holding his hand, looking out across the vistas below them, talking about it.

But that was over, because Wylan had been stupid, and he'd made Jesper feel awkward, and Jesper had made fun of him—or, at least, of the situation—and now he could barely look at him, much less bear to stand next to him.

Jesper barely saw the sights below, busy beating himself up for having been so stupid. Of all the things he could have said, or done, he'd made a joke. Which was, after all, what he did … but in a moment where Wylan had trusted him with something important about himself, something Jesper imagined he didn't share with many people—well, it had not been the right time. Not at all. He had deserved better.

Standing there, wanting nothing more than to be with Wylan again, Jesper tried to decide how he could fix this. Maybe if he just ignored it, pretended it had never happened, acted like normal. Maybe that would work.

Moving to stand next to Wylan at the railing, he said with enthusiasm that was genuine but sounded forced, even to his own ears, "Can you imagine this? Here we are, sailing over land and sea."

Instead of replying, Wylan ducked his head so Jesper couldn't see his face, and fled to stand next to Nina. Who was entirely too perceptive for Jesper to risk following. Next thing you knew, Nina would be trying to solve their problems herself, and likely at the top of her voice.

He bided his time, thinking about his next approach. Sex had always worked for him, he reflected. The sun was sinking over the horizon in a truly gorgeous sunset that Jesper just wanted to stand here and appreciate, with Wylan by his side, holding his hand. He cursed himself again as every kind of fool for creating this mess.

No one was looking—Nina and Zoya needling each other, Inej up at the bow watching the world go by, Kaz and Tolya working out the details of the plan, the Hummingbird's crew measuring the wind and guiding the little ship along. Wylan stood alone at the railing, his arms folded and his chin resting on them.

Jesper slipped up behind him, his hands on either side of Wylan's elbows. He bent over, whispering into Wylan's ear, "Beautiful, isn't it? Almost as beautiful as you are."

Wylan closed his eyes as the shudder worked its way through his body. He wanted to let himself go weak in the knees at the sound of Jesper's voice, to lean back and melt into that long body, to go back to where things had been, to feel safe and cared for and special and wanted.

But Jesper knew his shame now, knew that he was damaged; defective. All this could possibly be about was sex, and that wasn't enough. Besides, this approach was Jesper through and through—always taking the shortcut, trying to bypass the system, to get what he wanted in the easiest way possible.

Ducking under Jesper's arm, Wylan hurried across the ship to Tolya, who had been talking to Kaz but was now standing there alone. "Is this Prince Nikolai's ship?"

Tolya smiled. "Sort of. He's … borrowing it from Sturmhond."

"The pirate?"

"Privateer."

"I'd love to look at the schematics sometime."

Tolya's smile turned to a laugh. "When we finish here, I think that could be arranged. You should see his other inventions."

"Others?"

"Yes." And he started describing them to him while Wylan listened, fascinated.

Jesper stood at the railing watching the two of them. Why did Tolya have to be so good-looking? Why did Jesper have to be so stupid as to think a little seduction would work on someone as intelligent as Wylan?

Jealousy wasn't an emotion that came easily to Jesper. Share and share alike, had always been his idea. But then … he had never felt quite like this about someone before. And watching Wylan have an animated conversation with someone they both had just met was burning him up slowly from the inside out.

They arrived in Bhez Ju in the early morning, landing the ship just outside the harbor so as not to cause suspicion and sailing it the normal way from there. The first stop was in a market district, where Inej and Tolya immediately found a shrine to say their prayers. Zoya went with them, and Nina, while Kaz and Wylan and Jesper stood and watched.

Tolya joined them, prayers successfully sent up to wherever they were going. He nearly beaned Jesper in the head with the handle of his sword, and Jesper frowned at him.

"Just so you know," Tolya said, "it's considered bad luck not to honor the dead during Suntsa Sar."

Jesper thought of his own dead. He didn't feel like honoring her. She'd abandoned him; she'd chosen another child over him. He was still angry with her, and he didn't want to stop, because if he did he might have to miss her, and that would bring a pain that could not be borne.

"If I truly believed in luck, I'd be in a lot less debt," he said lightly. He glanced in Wylan's direction, hoping for a reaction—any reaction—but there was nothing.

"And I'm more concerned with the living than the dead."

Tolya shook a finger at Kaz. "Tend not to your ghosts and they will come back hungry."

Kaz ignored him. "The tea shop should be open now."

He moved off to join the women at the shrine. Tolya offered Jesper a piece of whatever he was eating—for a man that fit, he did nothing but eat—and Jesper declined.

"Tolya," Wylan said abruptly. "I was actually looking to buy some firing powders. Do you want to come?"

Slowly, Tolya turned to look at Jesper, and Jesper did the math and realized that would leave him alone, while this tall well-built swordsman walked off with Wylan. As they moved away, he took a deep breath. He was not going to be put to the side that easily. "I've always been a fan of shopping," he said, turning to follow them.

"Huh. For explosives?" Wylan said derisively.

They were the first words he'd spoken to Jesper since Jesper had been an idiot, and Jesper chose to take that as a good sign. "Sure." A nice hat, maybe, too, if he saw one, but if Wylan wanted explosives, explosives he would get.

Somehow, Jesper found himself sitting at a table with Tolya, drinking some very nice ale, while Wylan shopped on his own. He wasn't sure how that had happened until Tolya said abruptly, "Go on, then. What'd you do to him?" When Jesper just turned and stared at him, he gestured with his tankard. "Clearly you've done something stupid."

"I did not do anything stupid."

"Mmm." It was clear his denial lacked conviction. Which was fair, since it wasn't true.

"I said something stupid," Jesper admitted.

"Mmm-hm. Well … how will you fix it?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be talking to you, now, would I?"

Tolya waved his chopsticks at him. "Funny you should say that. There is a poem—"

Jesper had two choices. He could sit here and have entirely the wrong person recite poetry to him, or he could go talk to the right person and try to fix this mess he'd made. No contest. "That will be incentive enough." He drained the ale and got to his feet.

Joining Wylan at the stall, he plucked a vial from his hand and held it up. "What's that one?"

Wylan cleared his throat. Having Jesper near made him nervous and awkward in all the wrong ways at the moment. "That's … that's red phosphorus. It's … it's rare in Ketterdam, but when you mix it with potassium chlorate, you get a surprisingly strong contact explosion." He lifted the potassium chlorate for emphasis.

"How do you know what mixes with what?" Jesper asked, sounding legitimately curious.

"It's just chemistry. And I had a tuto—" He caught himself. Bad enough he had shared one secret and ruined everything. He wasn't about to reveal anything more. "Just trial—trial and error."

"With explosives?"

Wylan nodded. "Yeah, well, when the sample sizes are small enough, the explosions are relatively manageable."

"You keep all of that in your head and you've still got all your fingers," Jesper mused. He smiled. "You might just be the smartest person I know." Which was saying something, because he knew Kaz Brekker.

The words landed hard on Wylan's ears. A little bit of chemistry, and not being stupid and blowing off his fingers hardly added up to that kind of extravagant praise. What he had taken for interest was nothing other than condescension, and somehow Jesper thought that would make everything better.

He sighed in disappointment and turned his head, not looking at Jesper. "Tolya? Sorry, Tolya, could I get your help?" And he fled to the comforting side of the total stranger who didn't make him wish for things he now saw were impossible.

Left alone at the stall, Jesper grimaced. That should have worked. Why didn't that work? Across the busy market, he met Tolya's eyes, and the warrior mouthed, "What happened?"

Jesper threw up his hands helplessly and followed them through the market—but at a safe distance while he tried to figure out exactly where he had gone wrong this time and what he could try next.