“Do you always get an audience?” I asked Burn, who didn’t seem to mind the gathering crowd.
“Yeah, it’s hard to stop.” He stared over at Julia, with kids on either side. He lifted his hand and shot some fire out of his palm, letting it bounce off the walls of the ward and fill it like a tube full of flames over his head.
The kids all laughed and came a little closer. He lifted his hand and patted the air, and the kids didn’t come any closer, as if they knew the drill. Clearly this wasn’t Burn’s first magic show. “Hard to stop,” he said.
Yeah, right. All of them, bunch of softies. We were all dead when Bedlam marched on us.
The flames gone, Burn turned back to me. “Okay, let’s see what you’ve got.”
Keeping my eyes forward, I didn’t think about all the eyeballs on me. It wasn’t like they’d know I’d failed unless I rushed the thing. I’d walk up and knock on it like that was what I was meant to do.
I walked.
I kept walking.
I either had to stop or bang into Burn. “Where is it? Did you drop it?”
My first inkling that something hadn’t gone according to plan was when he squinted down at me, inches from him, as if trying to figure out how I was there.
“I went light on you. Move back. I’ll do it again.”
I moved a good four feet out of his way and watched as he picked up his stick and chanted again. He tossed it down and thrust his chest out. He had a definite challenge in his stance. “Okay, give that a try.”
I looked at the ground, making sure I paid attention to where he’d drawn the line this time. I didn’t want to bounce by accident. I walked up to it and then nudged my toe right through, followed by my foot and the rest of me. “Is it still up? You sure you’re not dropping them somehow?”
“Let me try again.” He walked over and picked his stick back up, then tossed it and got a fresh one.
“You know…” I faltered for a second when he looked up at me and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Maybe it’s a bad day. Did you get any sleep last night?”
He made a new circle and chanted on the louder side. “Now, give that a try.”
I glanced behind me, seeing the little faces worried that their star might be losing some of his sizzle. Julia bit her lower lip, looking a little worried.
I took a step closer and tried to pretend to bounce.
“Wow, I think you did it now,” I yelled loudly, and glanced back at the kids.
Burn tapped me on my shoulder and pointed at my foot, which had gone an inch over his line.
Shit. Not only was I getting as soft as them for caring, I’d blown the fraud.
Twenty minutes later, Burn had rivulets of sweat and our crowd was dwindling. I didn’t have the heart to comment on what might be going wrong. After I’d walked through his wards the first couple of times, like they weren’t even there, he’d had trouble getting any more up. One of the guys watching giggled and said that he guessed even Wyrd Blood got performance anxiety. They had a good chuckle over that, until Burn shot a blast of fire close enough to singe their toes.
I sat down on a nearby boulder until he called me again, each ward taking longer and longer to do.
I was waiting for Burn to get up another ward when I felt Ryker’s magic nearby. I didn’t see him, but he was close. Then he was gone.
About five minutes later, one of the kids who ran messages walked up to Burn. “Ryker said he needs your help with something very important.”
I knew it was bull, but Burn perked up like someone had pulled him out of the rapids. “Sure.” He turned back to me. “Sorry to leave you hanging like this, Bugs. Have to go when the boss calls.”
“Sure. I understand.”
I made my way over to the watchtower and climbed up the fifty-foot ladder to where Ruck sat on top of the platform, a wooden roof overhead putting him in the shade. He glanced over from his reclined position against the rails, but only for a minute.
“That was a bit embarrassing,” he said, his eyes trained on the perimeter again.
“How long did you hang around?” I settled down into a spot on the small platform, letting my legs dangle over the side. I hadn’t noticed Ruck at the practice, but he was good at not being seen when he didn’t want to be.
“Too long.”
That didn’t tell me much, since it had gone bad from the start. “I tried to fake it.”
“Not your fault you’re stronger.” Ruck punched me softly in the arm, as if to say, Don’t sweat it.
You could see the view of the whole city from up here. The people all going their different ways. It wasn’t like any other country I’d ever heard of. People seemed happy here. They had to be, the way they all smiled constantly.
If Ryker wasn’t so set on breaking into Bedlam, this might’ve actually been a good place to call home. And where was he, anyway? What was so important he blew off practice today? I found his door from the tower. It was shut, but then I saw a flash of long blond hair moving past the window.
“Who’s that?”
“Who?” Ruck turned and looked where I was pointing.
“I think there’s a girl in Ryker’s rooms.”
Ruck shrugged and turned back around. “I have no idea, but I can’t be staring in his windows. If you’re here to help, you’re supposed to look outward, not inward.”
“I’m not here to help.” Where had he gotten that crazy idea?
“Why do you care who’s in his room if it’s not me?”
“I don’t. I was only curious who could be so important that he blew off practice.”
I swung my legs back and forth as I watched Ryker’s closed door, wondering what they might be doing inside and waiting for another glimpse.
“You’re acting a little stalker-ish right now.”
“He’s my enemy. I need to know everything about him. If he’s got a girlfriend, that’s important info.”
“He doesn’t.”
I swung my head back to him. “How do you know?”
“According to Burn, he likes to keep things simple.”
“Burn told you this?”
“Yeah, we clicked. He’s a good dude.”
I didn’t call him out on it, but I’d bet that he’d asked Burn if Ryker liked guys. Only way that information would’ve come up between the two of them.
“More like he’s too cold to be in a relationship.” I rested my arms and chin on the railing. Cold and crazy and going to get us all killed. As far as I could tell, being moderately attractive was the only thing he had going for him. “You know you can’t stay here, right?”
“And I thought I was going to have a peaceful morning.”
I didn’t let Ruck’s lack of enthusiasm for my topic stop me. “I have to stay, but you can’t. You need to get Fetch, Sinsy, and Marra out of here before it’s too late.”
“Are you up here to tell me I have to leave, or so you can spy on Ryker?”
Ruck still had his eyes trained on the perimeter, but he knew me too well.
“I’m spying on my enemy.”
“That’s why you won’t stop staring at his door?”
I stopped staring for a minute to argue with Ruck, but I really wanted to stare at Ryker’s door. A truce might be a better path in this instance.
I went back to spying on my enemy. “I’ll shut up if you do.”
“Deal.”
I continued to stare, but in silence, and he didn’t say anything else about me staring.
Chapter 16
I looked about the breakfast table at the lot of them. It was a rerun of last night. All heads were down as they ate. I leaned forward toward Ruck, who was across the table from me, and gave him the dead eye. It was hard to do all that non-blinking, but it was worth it. If I could crack him, the rest would follow.
“I don’t care if you stare at me all day long. We’re not leaving.” The stubborn bastard kept eating.
We were both dug into our positions. He thought he was doing the best thing by staying, and I thought the exact opposite.
“Every bite you take is a bite closer to death.” I tried to give the word as much impact as I could. It didn’t work out so well, as they all kept taking bites closer to death.