He stood silently while everyone watched, since, as luck would have it, we’d all needed to refill. I knew I had some faults, stubbornness being one. But worse than stubbornness, I was about as prideful as they got, so this was going to be a tough one. I swallowed loudly, knowing everyone was about to hear what I said next.
“I’m bending. This is me bending. I’ll even get on my knees and beg if that’s what you want.” I followed my words with action, ignoring the thick mud. “But please, release me from the promise I made in the duel?”
I saw the lines in his face softening. He wasn’t totally heartless. He was going to release me. He felt bad for me, and I didn’t even care if he pitied me, as long as he released me from my duel promise.
I was so sure that he would. He wanted to. I could see it. When I heard his next words, it felt like he’d taken a knife out and stabbed me.
“I’m not sure if I can.”
“I’m apologizing. I’ll bend as much as you want. Please, Ryker, don’t do this to me. I know I’m partially to blame, but…please?”
He grabbed me under my arms, dragging me to my feet again.
“It’s not my choice. I don’t know if I can.”
I was trapped, worse than I’d ever been in my life, and I’d had some hairy moments. There was no out, no choice of where I wanted to go or live. That was it. I was stuck with him. I knew what happened if you disobeyed a magical vow. You died.
I pulled out of his grasp and took a few steps away. I felt his hand land on my shoulder, but it didn’t hold me when I kept walking. “I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.”
I started off in the direction we’d been walking, taking the lead so no one could see my face as reality set in. Was I really stuck? He’d said he didn’t know. That didn’t mean there was no possibility.
I’d get out of this. I’d make it out of this entire mess because I had to. I hadn’t gotten this far, survived this long, for this to be how my life turned out.
Chapter 29
I collapsed by the fire, in between Sneak and Burn, after practice. Ryker strode in behind me, as if he could go another ten hours. I wasn’t sure how he could travel all day, practice with me, and still have anything left.
He’d been right, though. Once I’d broken the ward that first time, it had been much easier each time after. A couple of pokes and I was pushing right through. That was great, except I still couldn’t build one.
The fire played with the angles of Ryker’s face as he stood by the fire. “You’ve got to be able to make a ward. Once you get to Bedlam and break theirs, it’ll be like sending up a smoke signal. All the Wyrd Blood in Bedlam are going to sense your magic and come for you. You have to be able to hold them off until I can get to you.” He turned and stopped in front of me, then stared at Burn. “But if she could juice your ward…”
Burn threw his arm around my shoulders. “We do make a good team.”
Burn was right. When we’d made that torch together, it had been pretty potent.
Magic flared out of nowhere and Burn dropped his arm. He shifted away a bit. “Work-wise, I mean.”
It took a second for Ryker’s magic to pull back in as Burn shifted a little further away from me.
“It could work. You too tired to try?” Ryker asked, as if that burst of magic hadn’t happened.
It was getting to be where I expected his magic to be as out of control as mine these days. Although the stress was getting to us all. If everyone else was going to ignore it, though, I wasn’t the one who was going to tell Ryker he was developing a little problem.
I got up and looked at Burn, the ward taking precedence over Ryker’s magical bursts. I did want to get out of Bedlam alive if possible. “Should I grab your arm? How does this work?”
Burn stood up beside me and shoved back the sleeve of his shirt. “Arm is fine.”
Sneak and Ruck backed up, probably thinking of the torch from our last fight.
Ryker took a step forward but left a solid buffer in between. “Focus on him, like you did when you made the torch.”
I laid my hand on Burn, squeezing firmly. Magic swelled around me and I pushed whatever I had toward him and waited. “Is it up?”
Ryker walked over and slammed a hand against the invisible barrier and then left it there for a few seconds. “It’s not the greatest.” He looked at me. “Can you give him a little more power?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Do you need motivation?” Ryker’s eyebrows rose.
Who knew what he’d come up with to motivate me, but it was surely something I’d want to kill him for. All I knew was the hint aggravated me enough to feel more magic revving.
It worked, and I felt more energy transferring from me to Burn. “I can do it. And just so you know, I’m going to get you back for all these taunts one day.”
Ryker smiled and then slammed a hand into the ward again. “I think it’ll hold, at least long enough for me to come and get you out.”
I dropped his arm, feeling like mine weighed a ton at the moment. Juicing people was as much of a strain as doing the magic yourself.
Ryker walked back to stand in front of the fire, and I could see the wheels still turning.
“It’s normal, by the way,” Burn said. He sank to the ground, dug through his sac and found a piece of dried beef to chew on.
I dropped beside him, using a boulder for a back rest. “The exhaustion?”
“No, but that is too. I meant your emotions controlling your magic to some degree. You get past it, though.”
“What about Ryker’s flares lately?” If he hadn’t gotten complete control, how was I ever going to? When I’d first met him, I thought he had his magic locked down. Maybe no one ever got it completely under control.
“He’s just hitting a rough patch, is all,” Burn said, evading the issue.
Rough patch? The guy leading us was having a rough patch? It was better before Burn had talked. I was walking toward my possible death being led by someone in a rough patch.
“We’ll be out of the forest tomorrow,” Ryker said. “We’ll go to the slavers. We can get there by the end of the day. They move people in and out of Bedlam all the time, and they can always be bought. They’ll get you right up to the border without anyone thinking anything is amiss. Then Sneak can get me in close enough that once you drop the ward and the place goes crazy, I can get in and retrieve the objective. It should work.”
Panic rippled through me. I kept myself still, almost unnaturally so, but it was better than showing my hand on what I thought of working with the slavers.
“I thought Sneak would get me close? Isn’t that what he does?”
“That won’t work anymore,” Ryker said.
Sneak leaned forward so he could see me past Burn. “It won’t work now that you need Burn. It’s too many people for too far. The more people and more magic, the harder it is for me to blend us in for any real length of time.”
Just because we were going to be dealing with slavers, it didn’t mean we were going to be dealing with him. It had been years, too. He might not even recognize me if he saw me.
As Ryker continued to discuss logistics, I could feel Ruck’s stare. After a few minutes, I glanced over. His eyes shifted in Ryker’s direction and then back to me, as if to ask if I was going to say something.
My answer was the tiniest shrug ever made.
He coughed softly, voicing his disagreement of my decision.
I shot him an unblinking stare.
Ruck turned to Ryker. “What if one of the slavers senses magic? Won’t they want to keep her instead of helping us?”
My head wanted to shake back and forth, so I leaned it against the stone instead.
“No, because I’d kill them, and they know it.” Ryker stared straight at me, as if he’d caught the undercurrent between me and Ruck. “Is there something I’m missing?”
Ruck turned and stared straight at me. Sneak and Burn did the same, as if they thought they were missing something, too.
I shrugged. “I don’t like the slavers, is all.”
Ruck rolled his eyes, and I ignored him. I didn’t care what he thought.
“No one does.” Ryker’s attention lingered on me for a tense moment before he continued.
Chapter 30