Trial by Fire

“And regulating your reactions,” he said, laughing a little at Lily’s choice of words. “You haven’t learned how to safely process all the different agents in the air and in your food.”


Lily had been so overwhelmed since the raid she hadn’t noticed that she’d gone two days without getting a fever or a rash or even a stuffy nose. She hadn’t had a full day completely free of a reaction in years, and certainly not on a day spent outside.

“Can you teach me?” she asked, leaning closer to him.

“Of course,” he replied with a small smile.

He had such an expressive mouth. Now that she was looking at him up close, she could see that even when his eyes were guarded, his lips conveyed every new emotion that sped through him, as if they were more sensitive than most people’s. Lily couldn’t stop watching them.

“Eat,” he reminded her.

She pulled her gaze away and started in on her acorns, pleasantly surprised to find them quite satisfying, if a bit bland.

“Got any salt?” she asked jokingly. His face pinched with worry.

“You need it. Badly.” Rowan rubbed his hand across the stubble on his chin and his leg started bouncing up and down nervously.

“It’s okay. They’re really good just like this,” Lily said.

“It’s not about taste,” he replied with frustration. “Salt is an important mineral for a crucible.”

“Why?”

“It’s a special substance. It carries a charge,” he said slowly, like she was a child. “Do you know what electricity is?”

“Yes.” Lily tried not to sound offended or sarcastic. She knew Rowan couldn’t possibly understand that to her parts of his world looked like they still had one foot in the Stone Age. “And I know that salt is an electrolyte. We understand biology very well in my world.”

“Okay.” He paused, giving Lily another strange look before continuing. “Well, our bodies are electric, and we all use salt for a number of things—nerve impulses, muscle contraction, extracting energy from food. But a crucible’s body speeds through these processes differently, and at an accelerated rate. As a result, you generate huge amounts of energy. You also use up a lot more salt.”

“Is that why I freaking love Fritos?” Lily asked. He didn’t get it. “Forget it. Keep going.”

“Witchcraft and salt go hand in hand. Your body practically runs on it,” he said, summing it up. “And I’m out of salt.”

“I’ll be fine. It’s just a craving.”

“When you crave something, it means you need it.” He breathed a laugh and his eyes momentarily turned inward. “A crucible’s craving is her mechanic’s mandate.” The way he’d said that made Lily think it was something he’d learned by rote, and that it had a much deeper meaning than was immediately apparent. “Trust me, in another day or two, this is going to become a big problem for both of us,” he continued. “And I can’t bring you back into Salem just yet. Not for another three or four days, at least.”

“Okay. Is there any way to get more salt?” Lily asked equitably.

“Yes. I could kill an animal, and you could drink its blood.”

Lily gave Rowan a withering look.

“Look, you don’t have to eat the meat,” he began, his tone near to pleading.

“I’m not drinking blood, Rowan.”

“There are no other sources of salt out here. Otherwise, we have to go back to Salem.”

“Then we go back to Salem,” Lily said simply.

“Right. Because that’s the smartest choice,” he said sarcastically.

“I refuse to consume any part of any animal. It’s not an option.”

Rowan paced around the fire, biting his lower lip to keep himself from speaking.

“Just say it,” Lily said, jumping to her feet.

“Fine. I really want to know if there’s a universe, any universe, where you’re a reasonable person who knows how to compromise even a tiny bit?” he yelled back at her. “Does every version of you have to be so ridiculously stubborn that you won’t even do the littlest thing I ask?”

“Drinking blood is not a little thing,” she sputtered incredulously.

“You do realize who you look like?”