“Now what do we have to do again?” Burn asked, while staring at me as if I’d told him that the sun would cease to rise every day.

Ryker had already explained the situation once, and I’d repeated it after that. It was clear that this was going to take at least one more time.

“We both have to eat half of the Cave Dweller’s eye.” I didn’t pull out the eye that was sitting in my sack. He was struggling enough, and he hadn’t even seen how grotesque it truly was.

Ryker was standing beside me, arms crossed, but looking like he was going to break out in a laugh at any second.

Burn slapped a hand over his eyes.

“I knew he wasn’t going to take this well,” Ryker said. I elbowed him to shut him the hell up.

Both of Burn’s hands went up as he took a couple of steps away. “You’re telling me I have to eat a Cave Dweller’s eyeball?”

“Half. I have to eat the other half.” I would’ve eaten the whole thing if it would’ve made this easier. But I couldn’t. I needed Burn with me, and it was the only way he wouldn’t be seen approaching. The Cave Dweller had been very specific. Eating her eyeball would make the people at Bedlam turn a blind eye to us. If she’d been willing to part with more eyeballs, we could’ve all marched in together, but one was enough for me and Burn.

“I have a very weak stomach for strange foods,” Burn said.

Ryker turned and choked on laughter. Ruck and Sneak were suspiciously quiet, but I thought I saw Ruck bent over, laughing right beyond the trees, with Sneak beside him, hand on his stomach. Sneak must’ve been muffling them.

This was what happened when you ate biscuits for too long. You got soft. “You know what your problem is?” I continued, not waiting for Burn to ask me what. “You’re getting doughy.”

“Doughy?” His hand shifted to a flat stomach.

“No, not fat. You eat too many biscuits.”

“I’m not doughy.”

“Then shut up and eat your eyeball.”

His features bunched, and it appeared as if he was going to have a total meltdown. “Fine. When?” he spat out.

“We do it tonight if we can,” I said.

Ryker nodded, and so did everyone else. Talk ceased as everybody grabbed their gear to move out.

We stopped at the closest high point before Bedlam.

“Looks good,” Burn said, as he handed the field glasses to Ryker.

He took them and watched for a second before he said, “No. Not yet.”

“Why?” Burn asked, and I took the glasses from Ryker.

“There’s too much action. I don’t like the guards. They’re too alert,” Ryker said.

I located the guard stations on the perimeter. I wasn’t a soldier, but I’d stolen enough in the past and found myself agreeing with Burn that it looked quiet enough. I handed the glasses off to Ruck.

“It looks pretty good to me,” Ruck said, then handed the glasses to Sneak.

“Ryker, the guards look like they’re half sleeping, not to mention they won’t see us approaching anyway,” Burn argued.

Ruck and Sneak looked over at Ryker as if they weren’t quite understanding the problem either. None of us were.

Sneak dropped the glasses again, and I took them, double-checking my initial assessment. “I didn’t want to do this, but if it’s happening, let’s do it. I don’t want to sit and think about it for days when it looks this good. I’m either going to be able to do it or I’m not. The longer I sit here…” I choked on the rest of the words, but they could all fill in the blanks. None of us wanted to wait and debate if this was the moment we’d get ourselves killed.

Ryker sat silently for a few minutes before he gave a nod, as if he’d just signaled for an execution or something.

That was it. We were a go, if a hesitant one.

“Eyeball, please,” Burn said.

I found a nearby stone, placed the eyeball on it, and cut it in two with my dagger. I had to use a piece of fallen bark to scrap the goo off before I tucked the dagger away.

I popped my half in my mouth, grabbed my water, and swallowed it whole. Compared to hollyhoney, it wasn’t that bad.

Burn, on the other hand, was gagging and putting his hand over his mouth.

“You chewed it?” I stared at him in disbelief. What idiot chewed anything that looked that disgusting when it was small enough to swallow?

His face was contorting as if he had no control of it. “I didn’t mean to. It was instinct.”

“Did you at least get it all? No bits stuck between your teeth? This is important.”

His tongue danced around his mouth and he nearly gagged again.

“What part of ‘swallow it all’ did you not understand when we discussed this three times?” If his sensitive stomach screwed this up, I was going to kill him again after the people at Beldam did.

Ryker stood beside us as if he were at our funeral. I would’ve preferred a lousy pep talk. He was seriously killing the mood, and it hadn’t been good to begin with.

“Come with me.” Ryker grabbed my arm without waiting for a response and tugged me after him.

“What? We don’t have much time. We need to get moving.” The Cave Dweller said it would kick in about thirty minutes after we ate it, and we’d get an hour tops. I wanted every second I had available to work that ward.

He walked well out of hearing range of the group then dropped my arm but grabbed my shoulders with both hands, staring into my eyes. “You don’t have to do this. I can find another way and I’ll still help you get out of your debt.”

“What?” As shock coursed through me, it was all I could come up with. He couldn’t be serious. “I thought you didn’t have another way?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

I was right. There was no other way he knew of.

He meant it, though. I could walk away from this whole mess right now. Why was I hesitating? I should take the out and run with it, and yet I wasn’t running.

No matter what I’d wanted to believe about Ryker, I didn’t truly believe he was a bad guy. His people didn’t walk around smiling the way they did because he was some sort of tyrant. They were happy. Genuinely so.

Then there was the Cave Dweller asking for protection. There was something much bigger going on here, and the more I saw, the more I was hesitant to walk away, at least without getting some answers.

I stepped back, and he allowed me to, his hands dropping to his sides.

“What is it you want in there?” I held up a hand quickly to stop him as I thought of what might happen if I went and got caught. He was right about that. “No, don’t tell me. Tell me this instead: whatever you’re getting, what do you need it for?”

“War is coming whether I do this or not. But what I get might be the only thing that saves us.”

I believed him. Believed every horrible, scary word he’d just said. The Cave Dweller knew as well. That was why she’d asked for protection—because nobody would be safe if war broke out again.

I bit my lip. “I’m going to go drop that ward, and you’re going to get in there and get what you need.”

I waited for him to agree with me. He didn’t. I’d rather he had.

“Don’t get funny on me now. I told you before, I don’t like you and you don’t like me, and that’s the way we’re keeping it.” I wished I could believe my own words, because it would make things so much easier.

“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.