The little gaggle of kids laughed as they made their way across the road and headed toward a building they used as a school. It was the only building with bright yellow shutters, as if they’d just been painted.

The children all filed in, about fifteen of them in total. Julia, the teacher, stepped into the door and waved them past her before turning around and going in herself. I crept around, ducking behind some of the other buildings until I could see into one of the windows.

Julia walked over to a board with letters on it, “Everyone say it together. A, B, C…” She pointed to each letter as she said it until she got to the end, and then sang a little song to end it. “Let’s do it one more time.”

Oh good. “A, B, C…”

I tried to mumble the letters along with the class as best as I could, falling behind a little when I didn’t know what came next.

I felt Burn, and jumped when I realized he was only a few feet away. I really wished I could feel him coming from farther away, like with Ryker.

“Hey,” Burn said, looking at me and then the class. “Ryker is looking for you.” His brows dropped a hair, as if he were trying to figure out why I was lurking outside the classroom’s window.

“I heard the commotion,” I said, answering the unasked question before I brushed past him.

He fell into step beside me. “It’s not a big deal, not knowing.”

“I know.” I quickened my step, and he did as well. “What did Ryker want?”

“You’re late for practice again.”

“I got hung up.” Shit. I wondered if she would teach them to read clocks soon.

Ryker was already standing inside a circle, arms crossed, when I got there. I walked toward him, realizing he was a little farther out than normal.

“I lost track of time.” It wasn’t an apology, but it might’ve been a hair closer than my last explanation.

His lips flattened and I saw a twitch in his jaw. This guy wasn’t too good about letting things roll off his back.

Whatever. That was his problem, not mine. I probably wasn’t even that late, not enough for him to get all bent out of shape, anyway. A little late or a lot late, it was obvious we were working on wards today, so I couldn’t be in a bad mood if I wanted to be. It meant a break from his magic poking at mine and doing the weird things it did.

As I stepped closer, the ground got soggier and soggier until I was standing in a couple inches of mud. How had he not noticed how bad this part of the field was? The ground was sucking at my feet as I moved forward.

I was six feet away from him and closing in when I saw him start to chant. There was already a circle around him, so what was that about? I turned, realizing there was another circle I’d already crossed. Was he erecting a ward behind me, essentially trapping me in? I spun and walked away from him, not believing he’d stoop to such pettiness until I hit the invisible wall. He’d donut-ed me in a mud field.

I spun around. “What the hell? I’m here.” Yes, a bit late, but I’d come. It wasn’t as if I’d tried to make a run for it to get out of practice.

“And you’ll stay here until I say we’re done, which is going to be an hour after when we would’ve been done originally.”

An hour? Shit. Was I really that late? It took the air out of the scream I’d been ready to let loose. Maybe that was a bit irritating, but I couldn’t apologize to someone who dangled my life by their pinky. I had my standards.

Now, which ward did I try for? The outer or the inner? The outer might be weaker.

“Do you plan on doing anything today, or just wasting more of my time?”

I glanced over at him and realized why he’d picked the muddiest spot in the damn field. There was a high point in the center with a boulder that looked like it had a built-in back rest. He grabbed some papers out of his pocket and then settled down comfortably.

“I’m wallowing in mud so that you can recline?”

He shrugged. “I was going to ask your opinion on the spot, but you weren’t here.” His eyes were on the papers in front of him, but I knew I had his full attention.

I decided to focus on the outer ward so I could get as far away from him as possible.

“You need to stop ramming. Lay your hands on it and concentrate on feeling it. Feel the magic, how it’s formed. You need to learn it, not beat it up.”

I placed my hands on the ward as he suggested, but it felt like a mass of magic all churning around.

“What am I feeling for?”

“It’s different for each ward. That’s what you need to figure out.”

I stood there feeling the magic churning for a good ten minutes, no further than I had been. Then I rammed myself into it again because it felt better than nothing.

Ryker looked up from his paper. “Do you know how old you are?” He was staring in that way he had, as if he was measuring my worth again.

“Not exactly.” What was with all the questions today? Can you tell time? How old are you? I liked it better when we didn’t speak. I laid my hand on the outer ward before I rammed a shoulder into it.

“What’s your estimate, then?” His tone implied that I had one.

He was right. By my estimate, I was eighteen or nineteen. My birthday was in the spring, but I didn’t know which day. All I remembered were the daffodils blooming on my birthday. It was the last one I had with my mother before everything had changed. The memories had faded so much that I wasn’t sure if I’d recognize her if I saw her today.

“Why? Do you have an age limit on indentured servants? Do you only make slaves out of people under sixteen or something? Because in that case, I’m fifteen.” I switched shoulders; my right already felt bruised.

His silence made me look back at him.

He lifted an eyebrow and tilted his head toward me. “You’re young, but you aren’t fifteen.”

There it was, that same look from the lake, the one that had me convinced he didn’t like men. When he stared at me in that way, there wasn’t any measuring or calculation. It was as if I was seeing the very soul of the man, and it was intoxicating. Then the sizzle of our magic started and I knew what would come next. Why did this keep happening? We didn’t even like each other.

I rammed the ward again, hoping it would stop whatever had been forming, trying to shift my magic away from him.

He dropped his gaze back to the paper, as if he were trying to do the same.

Luckily, it began to subside. It was a few more minutes before he explained himself, as if he didn’t want any interaction until it went away.

“Your magic hasn’t peaked yet,” he said.

If I’d grown up in a country with other Wyrd Blood, I would’ve known what he was talking about. But I hadn’t. I’d lived in the Ruined City, where you didn’t tell anyone what you were. I wrung my hands, realizing that I finally had someone who could give me all of the answers, but I was afraid to ask.

Ryker was strong, but he wasn’t someone I should rely on. He would use me as all the other lords, kings, and queens used Wyrd Blood.

“Do you have any idea what I’m talking about?” His words were coated in mockery as thick as a hive coated in honey.

“Doesn’t matter.” I might want to know, but it didn’t really matter, did it? It wouldn’t change when it peaked, would it? Or anything else, for that matter. I’d do his thing, break his ward, and get my people the hell away from this place before the retribution for our actions rained down chaos and war.

He shook out a piece of paper that appeared to be one of those maps. “Magic doesn’t typically peak until twenty-five. It might grow after that, but at a slower rate.”

“So you’ve peaked.” I knew he was one of the Wyrd Blood that had so much magic it distorted their aging.

He let out a small laugh. “Yes. I’ve peaked.”

I was banging my hand on the outer ward for a good fifteen minutes before he decided to speak again.

“You know after you break Bedlam’s ward—”

“If I break Bedlam’s ward.” I loudly slammed a hand against the ward I couldn’t break.

“Fine, if you break it, more than just Bedlam is going to come for you.” He spoke as if we were discussing the cool spring day as he shuffled some papers.

As if I hadn’t thought of that myself. Once the other countries discovered an emerging threat, they always tried to wipe it out in the early stages, if they couldn’t acquire it for themselves.

“I’ve been living in the Ruined City for years. I’ll manage.” I knew where this was going. Ryker might be a bastard, but I didn’t think he would break his word. Now he was resorting to convincing me why I needed to stay.

“There’s only so much one person can handle.”

“I’m not one person.”

“So you’d force them to leave with you when you know they would have a better life here?”

“For how long? Until the next battle breaks out?” Now I knew why he’d put up two wards. So he could verbally torture me. “I’m trying to work, so if you don’t mind, shut up.” I laid my hands on the ward, feeling its tension and magic. I really needed to get out of here.

“Working would be an excellent idea, since your late start is going to bring us past dinner.”

See? Evil bastard would fucking starve me. I knew this relationship was going to end badly. Good thing I didn’t trust him and kept biscuits in my pockets.

It was only another ten minutes before he said, “Let’s switch gears.”

The ward dropped. Shit. I knew what that meant. Maybe our magic wouldn’t do that funny thing again? What if it only acted like that once a day and then was normal?

Nope. It was starting again.

He stood, and the magic stopped. “Forget it. We’re done for the day.”

At least he hated the feeling too.

He didn’t have to tell me twice. I shot out of the field.