Oh no. Another dull that wanted to be Wyrd Blood. I didn’t need to pull a worm to answer that, but I did anyway. Let the worm shoulder the brunt of her disappointment. I made enemies easy enough on my own. I dug up a fresh worm and went through the motions, watching as it proved my belief. I covered the hole and brushed my hands off on my pants.
“The worm isn’t always right.” It had been in my experience, though, and it probably was this time, too. You were either born Wyrd or dull, and nothing changed that. “Even if you don’t ever get magic, it’s not that great.”
Her gaze dropped to her feet. “I’ve heard about the markings on your back. What’s it like?”
Had to have come from Burn. Ryker didn’t talk enough to tell people about my back. “It comes with a lot of downside. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
She nodded the way people do when they’re agreeing only so you’ll shut the hell up and stop feeding them what they consider a line of bull. Being a respectful person, or trying to be, I shut the hell up.
Ryker was nearing, and I saw Clarissa, Karen, or whatever her name was glance over.
“Thanks,” she said, and headed off as Ryker made his way to me.
He didn’t look happy. I widened my stance and got ready. I wasn’t getting pushed again, even if he didn’t mean it. I wasn’t above punching him in the mouth again, if I could figure out how I’d done it the first time. If I could, though, oh boy was he in trouble.
He didn’t leave me wondering for long. “We’re leaving at first light.”
“Leave for where?” Please, don’t say Bedlam.
“Bedlam.”
“I’m not ready. I only broke your ward once, and I still haven’t made one myself.” I didn’t think I’d ever be ready. Even if there was a chance I could do it, it was a long way off from now.
He was already walking away as he said, “You’ll be able to break more now. You just need to get angry enough. You’ll do it.”
As far as pep talks, it fell as flat as the ground under my feet. Although if I was going to pretend that had been a pep talk, I could also convince myself of a hundred and one other fictitious things.
I’d have to convince myself of a hundred and two imaginary things if I didn’t think I’d be leaving soon, whether I wanted to or not. If Ryker was convinced we had to leave now, we’d be leaving now. I shoved the hair out of my face, wondering if he was going to figure out I couldn’t do what he wanted before or after I died trying.
I got back to my room and shoved my few things into my sack. Packing took all of two minutes, and then I stopped by my pile of books and ran a hand over one. Wouldn’t matter if I could read once I was dead.
I stood, took a few steps, and then went back and grabbed the top one off the stack. I didn’t want to die an illiterate.
Would Ryker feel bad when he killed me? He’d felt bad after he got me sick. I knew he hadn’t sat and told me stories for hours without a little bit of guilt in there somewhere. So, he did have some niceness, even if it was buried down so far you had to squint to see it.
I climbed into my squishy bed, knowing it might be my final night in it. Might be my final night ever.
Chapter 23
The town wasn’t awake yet as I made my way to Ryker’s. They were all still asleep in their beds, probably having no idea that we were about to head out and start a war.
I hesitated for a moment in front of Ryker’s door before I pushed it open without knocking. Stalling for a few minutes wasn’t going to make a difference. Burn and Sneak were there, but I’d expected them. I hadn’t expected Ruck and Sinsy.
I walked to where the two of them stood, the sacks slung over their shoulders telling the story. “What are you doing here?”
“Going with you,” Ruck said.
Sinsy nodded. “The others wanted to come too, but this is more of a stealth mission, and Ruck and I won the draw.”
“You won the right to die? Because that’s what this is, a suicide mission.” I wasn’t screaming, but I was fairly certain Burn and Sneak heard me from across the room.
“Then so be it. Not letting you go alone. We’ve been together since we were kids, and we’re going to be together until we’re dead.” Sinsy held up two fingers, crossed together, like her sister would’ve.
This was the exact reason I loved them. They were loyal to the core. And this was why I wasn’t getting them killed. I was the one cursed with Wyrd Blood.
“Even if being dead is next week?” I asked, searching both of their faces.
“We go down together,” Sinsy said.
“I want to go down alone.”
Ruck shrugged.
“Do you realize we’re going through the Ruined Forest?”
He mouthed “fuck.”
“Now will you stay here?” I asked them.
“I can’t say that I’m happy about the path forward, but I’m still going,” Ruck said. “Sinsy?”
“Same.” Sinsy had a stubborn expression on her face.
Ryker made his appearance, and I threw him the evilest eye I could conjure. This was his fault. He looked at Ruck and Sinsy by my side, as if acknowledging he knew what had set me off, and then shrugged. The next person who shrugged at me would get a dislocated shoulder.
Ryker moved toward the door and said, “Let’s head out.”
“I knew we couldn’t take the chuggers, but I was kind of hoping we’d be able to take the horses.” It was the first complaint Ruck had uttered, and it had to have killed him to wait an hour to do it.
I’d never seen the horses. I’d never seen the cows or pigs, either, but apparently, there were lots of farms on the northern side of the Valley.
I hesitated for only a second before I made myself predictable. “You could always turn around.”
He grimaced, as if he had held on to some hope I wouldn’t actually say it. Silly boy.
“Can’t take horses through the Ruined Forest,” Burn said. “They get spooked.”
With good reason. I’d figured Ryker would get me killed at Bedlam. He might get us all killed before then, though.
“Bugs, you got another biscuit in that sack?”
I narrowed my eyes and stared at Ruck for a minute. He shouldn’t be here, with us, marching to his death. Did I really want to encourage him?
Not giving him a biscuit wouldn’t make him turn around. He might be dead in days because of me, and I didn’t want it to be on an empty stomach.
He smiled, ignoring my disgruntled appearance as I handed him and Sinsy one each, and then I got wiped out completely as Burn and Sneak swooped in for more. Did nobody pack their own biscuits?
Our group got quieter the closer we got to the Ruined Forest. No one had willingly walked into the Ruined Forest since after the Magical War of 810, not even crazy people. Only us. I wasn’t sure what that said about our group, but it probably wasn’t anything good.
I sped up until I was beside Ryker. “You do know this is crazy, right?”
“That depends on perspective,” he said, eyes straight ahead on the dense forest we were about to walk into.
I shook my head, thinking back. I should’ve run the moment Reilly came and warned me Ryker was looking for a Wyrd Blood. If I’d left, Sinsy and Ruck wouldn’t be walking into the Ruined Forest today.
“How did you know there was a Wyrd Blood in the Ruined City, anyway?” I was going to need some names so I knew who to kill once I got out of this. I already had suspicions, but for the revenge I was planning, confirmation was a necessity.
“The chugger raids.”
“I don’t see how that would alert you to a Wyrd Blood.” I’d used a bow on the chuggers. Lots of normal people used bows. Not that many Wyrd Blood did.
He turned his head toward me, peering as if he saw all sorts of things that didn’t exist. “Do you think most shooters can hit a moving target far enough away that the chugger wouldn’t spot them?”
“I think some can.” I didn’t know of any, but that meant nothing.
“You do? A regular dull?” he asked.
“A dull who was a really good shot could.”
He was looking straight ahead when he casually asked, “How much magic do you think it takes, then, if the chuggers were protected by wards?”
I let out a low groan. That was why Marra, the best shot we had, could never shoot them but I could. I’d been broadcasting myself and hadn’t even known it.
“I satisfied your curiosity,” he said. “Now it’s my turn.”