Wyrd Blood

by Donna Augustine

  I felt Ryker’s eyes on me then, and met them. He nodded slightly. “This should be as bad as it will get.”

  If this was the worst, it was bearable. Not pleasant, but I’d make it without embarrassing myself.

  He put the map to the side. “Want to hear about the Ruined City before the war?”

  He might still be my enemy, but it didn’t feel like that right now. I nodded, curling deeper into the covers as he described what everything had been like hundreds of years before I was born.

  Chapter 22

  I woke up alone in the bed and felt fairly normal. Yesterday had been uncomfortable, but all in all, not nearly as bad as I’d expected. I stretched again, my muscles not super happy but feeling a lot better than they had.

  I found Ryker sitting at his table in the living area, reading something and eating breakfast. He waved to a chair on the other side. “Sit,” he said, not looking up.

  I pulled the chair out, sitting and watching. Were we friends now? No. Not friends. That was way too far to take it with someone who still held your life in their hands. I didn’t know what the hell we were. Was I supposed to be nice to him after yesterday?

  He shoved a plate of eggs and potatoes and a fresh set of utensils toward me, like he’d had them waiting. This was getting weird now.

  I took a few potatoes. You didn’t have to offer me food twice. I opened my mouth, and he slid a shaker toward me, like he knew I wanted salt. Of course he couldn't have known. It was probably just coincidence. A lot of people liked salt. There was a reason it was so expensive.

  He stood. “I’ve got some things to handle today. We’ll practice tomorrow.”

  I nodded.

  I was walking back to my room, belly full from eating, when I caught two guys I recognized from the construction crew about to slam hammers into the outer wall of my building. I ran the rest of the way and jumped in between them and my room before they could do more than dent the surface.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Ryker told us we had to.”

  “He told you to destroy my room?” Ryker and I had our differences. Maybe I’d even said I hated him in the heat of the moment or when I just needed some distance. Yeah, I’d punched him in the face, but I thought after yesterday that we’d gotten past that.

  He’d just been pretty human to me. I thought maybe we’d gotten to a place where, yeah, he was going to get me killed, but he might not enjoy it. But here they were, about to destroy my room on his orders? Figured he’d hold a grudge about that punch.

  The two guys shook their heads quickly. “No, he said we had to build a window.”

  Wait. A window? Hmmm, a window would be kind of nice. But we did hate each other, didn’t we? I shouldn’t accept a window. That might be—

  “Before you say anything else, Ryker told us that under no circumstances were we to listen to you and stop working. He said, ‘Your room is cold and damp. I can’t have you fucked up. You’ve got a job to do.’”

  The two builders were staring at me, and I stared back. It wouldn’t be a window like it used to be in the ruins, where all the stuff flew in. Or would it? Maybe he was trying to ruin my room?

  “What is it going to look like?”

  One guy shrugged and said, “I don’t know. Like a window?”

  The other guy, obviously the brighter of the two, pointed at a nearby building with a pretty window that had shiny glass in it. “Like that.”

  I liked that window. “Will it open and close?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, then I wouldn’t want to stop you from doing your job.”

  They both exhaled as I moved toward my door.

  “Stay away from this wall,” the smart one said, hitting a palm on the area that was about to become my window.

  “Sure.”

  The window wasn’t my only surprise when I walked in, leaving the door open for light. I had a bed. Like, a real, off-the-ground bed with a wooden frame and pelts on top of it. How was I supposed to sleep on that? What if I rolled off in the middle of the night?

  Well, I’d slept in Ryker’s bed and I hadn’t rolled off.

  I made my way over to it and sat down. Squishy. I bounced a few times. Really squishy. I flopped onto it. It was a nice kind of squishy, even softer than Ryker’s. I might have the best bed in the place. Still, it would take some getting used to. I turned onto my side, checking out different positions, and saw that my book pile had grown.

  Hmmm. That was interesting. I reached down and grabbed a new one off the top. I was just about to light a candle when I heard the hammer. A beam of light found me through the hole that would be my new window.

  I got to the front of the line for lunch and there weren’t any steaming orbs of perfection left—or biscuits, as the boring people called them.

  I stepped away from the empty tray with a frown, but one of the tower guards said, “Here, you can have mine.”

  Ben, I thought his name was. His shift on the watchtower was right after Ruck’s. He was another smiler, but he had a nice smile that went up higher on the right side, so it wasn’t so perfect. He held out his plate toward me, with his biscuit for the taking.

  “No, I can’t take yours. It’s okay. I ate one already. I’m on my second for the day.” Plus, I had some older ones from breakfast stashed in my room, but he didn’t need to know that.

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, thanks.” I smiled back. I didn’t even know I could smile at a stranger, but it was like his was infectious.

  “Please take it. I like when pretty girls smile,” he said.

  You could hurl insults my way all day and I’d be as cold as ice. A cute boy called me pretty and my cheeks flamed. And he was cute, with those golden highlights in his hair and his warm brown eyes.

  I reached toward his plate and felt an invisible shove before I could take the biscuit.

  What the hell? Where was he? I’d known Ryker was here, but I’d avoided looking for him. There wasn’t any real reason, other than the intimacy of spending the night and talking before falling asleep beside him. Then there was the whole window thing. I didn’t know if I should be thanking him for that, or aggravated because he only wanted to keep me healthy so that I could die for him.

  Now I wanted to find him, and I did, sitting opposite Burn in conversation.

  I took the biscuit and headed toward Ryker’s table, leaving the cute guy a little stunned. I’d smooth that over next time I saw him. There were bigger issues right now.

  I stopped right in front of their table, and glared at Ryker until the conversation died.

  “Why did you push me?”

  He leaned back. “What?” It sounded accusatory, as if I was the one who’d started trouble with him.

  I bent forward a couple of inches. “Why. Did. You. Push. Me.”

  “I didn’t—”

  Burn coughed and Ryker turned his attention to him, as did I. It was the fakest cough I’d ever heard. Burn wasn’t a good faker of anything, but man, his cough might’ve been the worst. He coughed again, his head bobbing with the action. What the hell was wrong with him?

  Ryker’s eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth to say something but then stopped. His eyes focused solely on Burn for a second. There was some sort of silent man-speak going on. He turned to me finally and said, “Accident.”

  “You pushed me by accident?”

  “Guess it’s habit.”

  I looked at Ryker and then back to Burn. Did Ryker not know he’d pushed me? For someone who prided themselves on control, he might’ve needed some practice himself. At least I knew when I was out of control. He was letting his magic go all sorts of crazy.

  Either way, that was about as close to an apology as I was probably going to get, so I lifted my chin for a second, which was as close to a nod of acceptance as he was going to get. I took my food and left. He was lucky he’d gotten me that new squishy bed. It was the only thing that saved him from my wrath. Well, the window might’v
e helped a bit too.

  I squatted by the edge of the territory and dug into the dirt, finding a nice, fat worm. Might’ve been the biggest one I’d found in a long time. I whispered to it and placed it down in the center of the hole. It turned and crawled back toward the camp, as all the rest of them had done. Maybe there was some crazy good dirt in this place and it had nothing to do with staying?

  “Bugs?” The voice was small, and I wasn’t sure if the question was about interrupting me or just using my name.

  I looked up and saw one of the girls that worked the breakfast line in the morning—her name was Clarissa or Karen or something. She smiled. It was as if they couldn’t help themselves.

  “Yes?”

  She stared down at where the worm had crawled. “I heard you could tell things?”

  I filled the hole. “I can’t. The worms can. Or they have in the past.”

  She took a step forward, and I realized I must’ve lost my scowl. I didn’t bother trying to get it back. She seemed too intent on talking to me for it to work anyway.

  She pointed toward the newly turned earth. “Could you ask it a question for me?”

  “Sure.” Seeing as I wasn’t going anywhere… I moved over a few feet and dug a new hole, explaining the yes and no directions.

  “Will I ever get magic?” she asked.

  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.”

  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?”