This was another reason I’d avoided questions, but he was right. It was only fair. “What did you want to know?”
“Do you know anything about your lineage, magically speaking?”
My mind drifted back to a time I didn’t like to think of.
My mother sang as I sat in the tub in our kitchen.
“First thing we do is we wash our ears, suds it behind, and then rinse it clear. Then what we do is wash our hair…”
My mother’s hands froze and she stopped singing.
“Mama?”
I felt fingers trailing along my back before she called my father. “Nadim!”
He ran into the kitchen. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Look.” Her hands were touching my back.
“Mama?” I asked again, wanting to know what was wrong.
“It can’t be. There’s no magic in our families,” my father said.
My mother stood, leaving me in the tub to argue with father. “But what about Great-Aunt Marmie?”
He shook his head, and I could see how upset he was. “That’s too distant. There’s no way she could have gotten enough to be marked on her back. It might be a bruise.”
“And if it’s not?” My mother was wringing her hands as she stared at me. “Then what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.”
But they’d figured it out.
“My parents weren’t Wyrd Blood, and neither were my grandparents. As far as I know, there wasn’t any magic in my family tree except for some great-aunt.”
He nodded, and I caught the sideways glance and knew bitterness must’ve leaked into my voice.
“Why did you want to know?”
“I have a theory that the more generations magic skips, the stronger when it shows. It spreads out or condenses depending if the magic is passed from grandparent, to parent, to child, or shows up several generations later.” Ryker turned his head toward Burn. “How many people in your family have magic?”
“Every single one of them has a little.” Burn smiled and held up his finger, lighting it.
“Two examples hardly prove the case,” I said.
“There’s many more than two,” Ryker replied. “It’s been true of every person I’ve questioned.”
Was he right? It was an interesting theory.
I nearly went flying over a branch, but Ryker’s hand on my arm stopped me from face-planting. I regained my footing and there we were, officially in the Ruined Forest.
Chapter 24
I was warming my hands by the fire and doing my best to ignore every stupid person at camp, which meant I was sitting by myself. Stupid. Very, very stupid. Probably needed about five more stupids to cover the level of stupidity I was surrounded by. Served them all right if they died. I’d prefer them not die at all, even the bastard standing beside Ruck, but it was probably still going to happen.
Ruck stood there, looking up to Ryker as if he were a god. How had this happened?
I rubbed my arms, warming them, and a creeping magic tingled up my skin. It was unlike any kind I’d ever felt. It was nothing like Ryker’s magic, which blasted you, unapologetic in its potency. Burn’s was a warm brush across your skin and Sneak’s was a short spurt, but not until you were up close. This was completely different. It was strong but with a slithery feel that made me want to scratch the skin off my body. Something or someone was out there, right beyond our camp, and it was watching us.
The feeling of something touching my skin grew stronger. I sat for a second, deciding between screaming the alarm or alerting them quietly.
I looked up, seeing if anyone else was catching a weird sensation. Everyone else seemed relaxed. Ryker headed toward the fire with a log in his hand, but I saw the near-glow of his magic in his eyes. He wasn’t looking to stoke the fires but to do battle. I remained still as he approached.
He tossed a log in the fire as he said, “We’re surrounded. Once they come, get Ruck and Sinsy and stay in the center.”
I nodded, but there was no way I was going to stand back in a fight when my life might be on the line. I glanced over at Ruck, who was looking my way as if he sensed something was amiss. I wiggled my fingers, our sign for trouble coming. He turned and alerted Sinsy.
It didn’t take long for the attack to come. The good news was that there was only one Wyrd Blood in the group from what I could tell. Bad news was we were surrounded on every side and outnumbered four to one.
Ryker, Sneak, and Burn spread themselves out. Burn grabbed Sinsy, pulling her behind him quickly as he drew his sword. Sneak stepped in front of Ruck, who had a dagger drawn. Ryker seemed to think he was going to block me, as he moved toward the Wyrd Blood, a fairly large man with slick hair.
The rest of them started to clang their way toward us with swords. Sinsy claimed the first kill with an arrow to the chest. I heard the clanging of swords and saw Sneak lop off a head.
Burn was lobbing fireballs as I threw my dagger, catching another in the throat. A glance over at Ryker and I couldn’t make heads or tails of what was happening around him. He held no weapons, but as I saw someone attack him, they fell to the ground dead before they touched him. He was making his way toward the other Wyrd Blood but couldn’t get close to him. It was like the Wyrd Blood was made of oil, slipping away from Ryker.
I grabbed my dagger out of one dead body before gutting the next, but there was another wave of attackers coming for us.
Ruck took a hit and fell. Sinsy immediately went to cover him, but her arrows were dwindling. My magic swelled in response. No, my people were not dying. Not while I had blood in my veins.
I wasn’t a stranger to fighting, but I’d never dealt with an attack like this—ever. In the past, I’d tried to ignore my magic when it flared, or tried to suppress it. I’d never intentionally churned it up when it felt this out of control already.
But that was exactly what I did as I looked over at Sinsy and Ruck.
I edged closer to Burn. “Give me the biggest flame you can.”
Burn held his palm up, the fire a couple of feet high. I wrapped my hand around his wrist, sinking everything I had into his flame. It leapt toward the sky in a blast and then I blew on it, creating a blowtorch that reached a good twenty feet.
We spun together and, between the two of us, torched every attacker coming. We swung on the Wyrd Blood, who already was making a run for it, last.
We’d already started torching him when I heard Ryker.
“Don’t kill him,” Ryker screamed. Burn and I immediately stopped, but I was pretty sure it was too late.
We all walked over to see the Wyrd Blood convulsing on the ground.
Ryker looked down. “I wanted him alive.”
I threw my hands up. “You should’ve told me before we fought. That’s on you.”
“You were supposed to stay out of the fight,” Ryker said, as if that was the same thing.
“Maybe we can still get something out of him?” Burn said.
The guy stopped twitching. I nudged him with my toe. No movement. “I don’t think so. What do you think they wanted so bad that they followed us into the Ruined Forest?” I still didn’t know what Ryker was after at Bedlam, but they must’ve known he was coming.
Ryker looked straight at me and said, “You. They want you.”
“Me? Maybe they’re after whatever it is you are trying to get. Why would they want me? They don’t even know about me.”
“That’s why I wanted one alive. You’re an untrained Wyrd Blood that has a lot of magic, and they know it. They think they’ll be able to control you, and I’m sure word has gotten out about you by now.”
“Well, that’s just rich.”
The moment went from serious to funny. Looking around at all the dead bodies, it was that or go crazy.
The laughter subsided as it hit me. I hadn’t even broken the Bedlam ward and they were already coming for me. It was over for me. One of Ryker’s people must’ve talked, and now I’d been officially labeled.
Unless it was Loretta. I never should’ve given her that dragon’s claw. After I disappeared, she’d probably sold my secret.
I moved over to Ruck. “You okay?”