“If it goes bad, I won’t leave you there.”
I nodded. My promise to him wasn’t spoken out loud, but there was no way I’d leave him behind either.
Burn was nearing, and we both turned as he came into view. “We have to get going. I swallowed that disgusting eye, and damned if I did that for nothing.”
“Time to go.” I smiled before I turned back to the guys waiting for us.
Chapter 33
Burn and I walked toward Bedlam. Large fires burned along the perimeter, and guards holding large mirrors shot out beams of light. They zigzagged around us but never halted. Even as we approached in plain sight, no one sounded the alarm.
Dragons swooped down close to the buildings before rising again and circling. I counted four in total. They were beautiful creatures, as long as they didn’t try and eat us.
“You think you can do this?” Burn asked, as we were closer than twenty feet from where we believed the ward to be.
“I have no idea. That might’ve been something to ask before now.” I didn’t hear panic in his voice, but it must’ve been there.
“I really hope we live.” His voice nearly cracked this time.
“Me too.” It was all us now.
Ryker was a ways behind us, Sneak getting him as close as he could without raising an alarm. Ruck was the eyes. He’d send a signal to Ryker once he knew the ward had dropped. Ryker and Sneak would get in as Burn, juiced by me, would hopefully hold off the masses and also act as a distraction for Ryker. Once Ryker got what he needed, he’d come and get us out.
We hadn’t discussed how exactly Ryker was getting us out, but I had a feeling it had something to do with the way people dropped dead around him. I hadn’t asked much because I didn’t really want to know. I’d already seen him do it. That was plenty for me.
We closed the last ten yards, moving closer to the shadow of some trees and shrubs. Bedlam didn’t have a wall like Dorley or a lot of the other countries did. It didn’t need one. It had one of the best ward makers in the world.
Most of Bedlam was asleep, but you could see the difference between this place and the Valley. A few buildings were pristine, while the majority were nothing more than shacks. I could see a large, almost castle like house on a hill in the center of the city.
We walked forward and then hit the ward. The largest dragon swooped down toward us but flew past. It was as if we’d sent out some sort of ripple and it knew we were there but couldn’t find us.
Burn leaned close. “If you break this ward, that dragon might burn us alive.”
I froze. “Ryker said it wouldn’t.”
“He told me that, too. I’m still thinking it’s a possibility.”
“Just keep watch,” I said, hoping to shut him up. This was stressful enough without imagining a dragon picking its teeth with my bones. The Cave Dweller said once I dropped the ward, not even her eye would be able to hide us.
I laid both hands on the ward, feeling the puzzle beneath my hands. All I had to do now was find the right spot to pull a piece from and it would tumble like a house of cards.
This was one hell of a puzzle, though, and it felt like there were a million pieces. But there was always one weak piece, and I’d find it.
I could feel sweat dripping down my face as I centered all my attention on it.
“Can you do it?” Burn was only a foot away.
“I’ll do it. Shut up.” I could see him turning and watching. Burn wanted a fight. He wasn’t used to sitting back and waiting, and it showed in his restlessness.
I ignored him and focused everything I had on the ward. The magic ran through my hands as I ran them over the surface. There would be a weak point. Had to be. No ward was unbreakable.
“Found it.” The relief was staggering. I forced my magic toward that fragile point in the wall. I pushed through the weak spot and felt the rest of the magic crumble.
“Duck,” Burn yelled, pushing me to the ground as every dragon in Bedlam headed in our direction.
Ryker was wrong. We were about to get burned alive. I covered my head, knowing it wouldn’t do a thing. The sound of their massive wings slapped the air above us and then started to fade.
The dragons passed over us and flew off into the distance. Had they been trapped behind the ward? Burn and I were on our feet again, just in time to hear the alarm horns blaring. Every guard on duty was now looking directly at us, and I saw a group of twenty or more heading in our direction.
“Juice me,” Burn said.
I grabbed his arm, and my depleted magic stuttered under the newest request. Before I could give him enough juice to build a good ward, an arrow shot through his chest. Burn crumpled in front of me.
I heard screams, “Don’t shoot the girl,” in the distance as I watched Burn struggling on the ground in front of me. Ryker was probably already in Bedlam, but Sneak couldn’t be that far away. If I could divert attention away from Burn, Sneak or Ruck might be able to get to Burn and save him in time.
I took off and ran, away from Burn, away from where I knew Sneak and Ruck might be. I pushed everything I had into my legs, knowing I wouldn’t be able to outpace the horde coming for me for long. It just had to be long enough.
I only bought them five minutes or so, but hopefully the distance was enough.
I was tackled to the ground by more than one person, a heel on my head keeping me there. My coat was ripped in two, and then the shirt from my back. “Yeah, this is the one Loretta told us about.”
A hand touched my back and my magic shot to the area. I heard a yowl, and then there was a hit to the back of my head.
Chapter 34
A swell of unknown magic crept up my spine, waking me. It was strong, but not as strong as Ryker’s. It was controlled, but barely.
There was a metal band around my wrist and stone under my cheek. Wind gusted as if I were up somewhere high.
The magic grew closer and hovered nearby. I opened my eyes instead of feigning sleep. I was high above the city on a flat rooftop with a forty-something man. His magic hovered in between us. I’d never seen such a fine red coat, or shoes that shone the way his did. Heavy metals were draped around his neck, and his dark hair looked pristine, as if he spent hours on his appearance.
I sat up, and the chain connecting my wrist to a hook in the floor rattled.
“Do you know who I am?” the man asked as he stayed more than five feet away from me. I guessed that was farther than the chain would stretch.
“King Harvos?”
He smiled, all teeth and venom packaged in fine threads.
I pushed matted hair back. “You here to kill me, or is this a social call?”
“It’s hard to dangle dead bait, so I’ll have to wait on the killing. Hopefully not too long, though.”
If being chained up here on the top of his house hadn’t made it clear, it was now. I was a goner. No ward would free me from this.
But bait for who? There was a possibility he wasn’t talking about Ryker. He might have thought I was working with my old crew. Loretta, the double-crossing bitch, would have told him about them. If he didn’t know it was Ryker I was working with, I wasn’t going to hand that information to him. Instead, I sat there silently, hoping he’d reveal more.
He pointed to my shirt, which was torn in the back, the sides flapping in the wind as I held the front to me. “Your back is quite impressive. That’s why you’re going to be dead soon. Some magic is good. Not the amount you have.” He took a few steps and sat on the ledge. One little push and he’d fall to his death, but he didn’t have to worry about that at the moment.
“If you had less, I might’ve been able to spare you. The markings on your back make it clear it’s way more magic than I want around. Too bad. That dragon claw you sold to Loretta will come in handy.”
If I got out of here, she was dead.
He smiled, and I realized my magic might’ve been swelling with my anger. I leaned back and crossed my ankles, as if I were enjoyin
g a morning in the sun.
“Aren’t you afraid to be around the Cursed King?”
“The Cursed King is dead.”
He leaned back and laughed. Even his laugh was horrible.
“I can’t believe you’ve been with Ryker all this time and you didn’t know who he was.”
Okay, so he knew I was with Ryker. But why was he calling him the Cursed King? Everyone knew he was dead. I thought back to Ryker killing all of those people without even laying a hand on them, and I held back. Holy magic, what if he was? Could it be? I couldn’t even hide my shock as I stared, dumbfounded.
Long ago, before the War of 810, when magic first came into being, there were a handful of people who were the first of our kind, the first Wyrd Blood.
When all the other Wyrd Blood were vying for power, there was one Wyrd Blood who hadn’t. People had flocked to him because of that very reason, even though he hadn’t wanted them to. When the first war had come, all the other strong Wyrd Blood got together to move against him because they viewed him as a threat. From the legends, thousands had died in a blink of an eye. It had been such a massacre that the Cursed King’s own people had killed him out of fear of what he could do.
It fit. It all fit. Even now, I could see history repeating itself. He didn’t want people to come. But people found him, his country, and didn’t want to leave. They came the way Ruck, Fetch and Marra had and saw a better life.
And here I was on this roof as bait, probably visible with the field glasses to anyone watching, so they could try and kill him for good this time.
“He’s not coming for me. He doesn’t even like me.”
“That’s not accurate, according to my spies.”
My stomach dipped. If I died here, Ryker would never know he had spies in his country. “You’re wrong. You might as well kill me now.”
“We’ll see.” Harvos stood and left.
By midafternoon, they’d brought me water and a slice of bread. It was just enough to keep my body alive until King Harvos wanted to kill me. Two guards stayed on the rooftop with me, as if they thought I’d fly away somehow. One was a grizzled older man who’d seen enough in his life for the hardness to show in his eyes.
Then there was the younger, dark-haired guy, who didn’t seem to have the same weathered look about him and kept glancing over at me.
After a couple of hours, he walked over and handed me half of the meat he’d been eating for lunch.
I took it with a nod of thanks. There was no room for pride when you were chained to a roof. And if Ryker did come, I’d need to be able to help him if I could.
The guard shrugged in return, knowing it wasn’t that much help to me.
“Hey, Alfred, what are you doing? That meat is for the living. Don’t waste your lunch. We’re here to stand guard.”
Way to kill a meal. I bit into it anyways.
“It’s my ration,” the young man said.
The older man shook his head. “You better hope the king doesn’t catch you doing that, or you’ll be the one dying next.”
The younger guard put some distance between us.
I’d fallen asleep, huddled in a ball, and woke to the sound of a muffled cry. I looked up in time to see a man drop dead to the ground, bleeding. It was the older guard who’d been with me all day.
Ryker stood over him. He’d come. He hadn’t left me here to die.
“It’s a trap,” I said, expecting something to happen at any moment, maybe a horde of soldiers to appear.
“I already took care of that.” He bent, searching the guard’s pockets for a key.
I looked past Ryker to see another body lying on the ground. I relaxed when it was another older guard and not the young one who’d tried to share his food.
Ryker pulled a key from the guard’s pocket, walked over to me, and undid the manacle.
He smiled. “You look as dirty as the first day I met you.”
I’d never been so happy to be insulted in my life. “And you’re just as charming.”
The second the manacle came off, he pulled me to my feet. There was a second hesitation before he wrapped his arms around me but then released me just as quickly.
My fingers bit into his arm. “Is Burn alive?”
He smiled. “A bit whiny, but hanging in there.”
I nodded and looked around the roof again. We were the only ones left alive up here, but I knew King Harvos had a lot more men. “How are we getting out of here?”
“We’re going to walk.” He took my hand and wrapped it around his arm, then stared at me. “You need to keep contact with me at all times, but don’t juice me. If you do, it could be very bad.”
I swallowed and nodded. I had a really bad feeling about how this was going to go down.
I gripped his arm, and he wrapped his hand over mine.
“Whatever you see, don’t unlink. If you do, you’ll die. And try and be quiet. I don’t want to have to kill the entire country.”
Please, don’t let there be a lot of people, please.
“You ready?”
I nodded, and we headed toward the stairs.
As we walked, I saw more dead guards, and none had obvious wounds. The rest were lying there dead but appeared untouched.
The pieces fit together. Ryker hadn’t been able to use his magic to kill the one closest to me, or he might’ve killed me as well. There was little denying it now. I was walking out of here with the Cursed King, the deadliest Wyrd Blood to have ever lived.
We walked through, and I tried to not look at the other five dead bodies we passed.
Our luck held until we got to the edge of Bedlam, where another guard was bent over, checking a soldier lying dead at his feet.
He stood and turned. It was my young guard, the one who’d helped me.
“Don’t kill him,” I said to Ryker, digging my nails into his arm. “He shared his food with me.”
“If you call for help, everyone within fifty feet will die and we’ll still walk out of here,” Ryker warned the guard.
He looked at me and then back to Ryker. “Can I come with you?”
“We have to take him,” I said without hesitation.
Ryker looked at me as if to ask if I was kidding.
“We have to.” I could see the second he relented.
“Fine. He’ll have to take my other arm until we get further out.”
“Why?” the kid asked.
“No time for questions, and no matter what you see, do not let go. Do you understand?” Ryker stared at the boy with a hard gaze.
The kid grabbed Ryker’s arm without hesitation. “As long as I’m out of here, I’ll do anything.”
The three of us walked away from Bedlam, and I knew one of us was gripping Ryker’s arm hard enough to leave bruises. I glanced at the young guard—or maybe both of us.
It wasn’t until we neared the spot of the planned trap that I saw how horribly King Harvos’ plans had worked out. There were a good fifty soldiers lying dead right outside the country’s border.
Chapter 35
Tang, the young guard who’d defected, was a good fifty feet ahead of us as we walked in the direction of where Burn, Ruck, and Sneak were waiting. We’d continue through the night to put some distance between us and Bedlam.
We were already a couple of miles out, and I was still waiting for King Harvos to send someone after us. I wasn’t sure if I was afraid for us, or to see what would happen to them.
Ryker noticed me looking back every few minutes. “He won’t come for me head-on again, not now. I walked through his trap too easily. It’ll take him a while to come at me again,” Ryker said as I turned back around.
“King Harvos told me some interesting things,” I said, looking for something other than a mound of dead bodies to think on.
“Did he now?” There was no surprise in his voice, as if he’d expected this.
“Yes. Nearly unbelievable things.”
“Everything is possible.” He shrugged.
“I did think maybe what he was telling me was true. But then I figured that someone who’d lived that long would be wise and patient, so it couldn’t possibly be true. Someone like that wouldn’t have tossed a person into a lake.”
“I think there might be limits to the most patient person, like getting punched in the mouth.” It sounded like he’d said the word while smiling.
“You could’ve told me who you were.”
“Before or after you suggested we keep on hating each other?”
“I hope you don’t expect me to call you king.”
“Definitely don’t call me the Cursed King, unless you want the Valley to empty out in a day. I don’t have the best reputation. I was hoping for a clean start.” His teasing wasn’t going to stop my questions.
“How many know?” As I waited, a fear that I really wasn’t going to like his answer kept growing.
“If King Harvos is telling you, probably too many.” His sigh said it all.
“Did you get what you needed?”
“Yes.” The word didn’t hold any happiness, though. It was more as if he were resigned to his actions, for better or worse.
“Are you going to tell me what it is?”
“No. I’m going to show it to you.” He pulled a piece of rock out of his pocket and held it up.
“What is that? Please tell me I didn’t risk my life for a small piece of stone.” Along with a pile of other people.
“It’s a very special piece of stone.”
Even in the moonlight, a glint of rainbow sparked from it, as if it were lit from within. This wasn’t a stone.
“What is that?” I lifted my fingers, itching to touch it but scared. You never knew what magic would do to you, and this thing was definitely strong magic, but I hadn’t felt it.
He smiled. “It’s part of something much larger.”
“Do I want to know what it’s a part of?”
He put the stone back in his pocket, looking forward as he said, “That’s up to you. Once you know, it’s going to be hard to walk away.”
Wyrd Blood Page 19
