I woke to a mostly sleeping camp, except for Ryker and Burn sitting off by themselves. Ryker held a stick and was staring at something he’d drawn into the dirt between them. Burn was watching him while he made small bursts of fire in his palm.

“It’s not going to work without her. She juiced you,” Ryker told Burn as I approached.

“You sure?” Burn asked.

“Positive.”

I made my way over and found a log to sit on. “What do you mean, juiced?”

“You lent him magic. There’s a handful of Wyrd Blood who can do it, and it appears that you’re one of them,” Ryker explained, most of his attention on the dirt in front of him.

I could juice people? That was what I’d done to Burn? Very interesting. Maybe…

“Could I juice someone else to help break the ward?”

Ryker glanced up. “No. You can lend them some of your magic to make them stronger, but it doesn’t work in reverse.” He stared at the dirt again, rubbing the stubble along his jaw.

Didn’t work in reverse? No, that wasn’t interesting at all. That pretty much sucked.

I glanced down at the dirt that had Ryker’s attention and realized it looked familiar. “Is that a rough drawing of the map you always stare at?”

“Yes.” Ryker tapped the dirt map with a stick. “We go this way and we’re going to have to travel outside the forest, and it’ll add days to the trip.” He tapped the stick in the other direction. “We go this way and we have to cross the Brim River.”

So this was the reason Ryker had always been staring at these maps. As far as choices, I didn’t know which was worse. They were both bad, though. I’d thought going through the Ruined Forest was rough enough, but crossing the Brim River, if the stories were true, was like agreeing to take a bath in a vat of acid.

“I say we try and cross the river.” Burn pointed to the line that must’ve been the Brim River.

If we went around, I’d have more time to figure out how to break the ward before Ryker sent me to my death. I’d also be a much larger target out in the open.

Ryker’s eyes met mine. “What do you want to do?”

Was he leaving this up to me?

Burn tapped his heel next to the dirt map. “East and cross the Brim River or west and risk being seen?”

I kneeled in the dirt and dug my hand in until I found a worm. It wasn’t as large as I normally would use, but it would do. I cupped my hands and whispered, “Do we go around or straight to the river?”

I placed the worm back onto the ground in the center of the dirt map. The worm wriggled around for a couple of seconds. We all watched it as it crawled and wriggled this way and that before it seemed to head in a definite direction.

“We head east and cross the river.” Now that the choice had been made—by the worm—the reality set in.

Ryker reached forward, picked up the worm right before it disappeared, and then placed it back down. When he leaned back, there was a smirk on his face.

“I’ll go wake the troops and spread the joy.” Burn stood and walked toward the heart of our camp.

Ryker stayed put, as if he knew I wouldn’t let what he did with the worm go. “What was that about?”

“You juiced up the worm.” He smiled, as if I was also part of what was amusing him.

I didn’t like it and I did. It wasn’t like that look, the one he had when our magic was reacting all sorts of crazy. This was something else. Not as hot, but warm and gooey.

I took a couple of steps away. Karma and gooey wasn’t good either.

“You mean like I juiced up Burn?” I asked, getting us back on track and away from any feelings that were warmer than ice cold.

“Yep.”

“How?”

“No idea.”

* * *

We all stood on the bank of the Brim River, watching the strange purple current. Before the war had happened, this had been a normal river.

“I’ve heard it burns some people alive,” Ruck said.

I’d heard the same. There were plenty of stories about strange things in this forest, but I’d been hoping some were false. “Why don’t we all dip a finger in and see what happens?”

For a bunch of people who’d agreed to follow the worm’s advice, no one seemed to trust the worm now.

“I’ll go first.” I knelt on the ground, rolled up a sleeve, and saw that Ryker was doing the same. We shoved our hands in at the same time. The stuff might look weird, but it felt like thawed spring water as it rushed over my skin.

I pulled my hand out. “Feels normal to me.”

Ryker removed his hand and shook off the moisture.

I sat back on my heels. “Maybe it’s all made up?”

“Rivers aren’t purple when they’re normal,” Ryker said.

Ruck moved forward and thrust his hand in but pulled it out quickly, waving it about and screaming bloody murder. His flesh was bright red, and I knew it had to be throbbing.

“Burn, you try,” Ryker said.

Burn didn’t look too eager, but he did it anyway. “It feels like warm bathwater.”

“It was warm for you?” Ryker asked.

“Was it cold for you?” I asked Ryker.

He nodded. The river water reacted to magic. The more you had, the more it felt as it was supposed to.

We all looked at Sneak.

Sneak walked over and dipped a hand in, letting his fingers flutter for a few seconds, as if he enjoyed the feel. He finally lifted them out. “Hot bathwater, but nice.”

I did the math. Four with magic, and two without. I wouldn’t be able to carry anyone across, but we had carriers to spare.

“I’ll cross first,” Ryker said. He looked at me. “Once I get across and it’s fine, you follow.”

It made sense. I’d seen firsthand how he could clear out an area. If there was something waiting on the other side of the river, he’d flush it out.

Burn walked toward Ruck. “I’ll take Ruck.”

“Then I’ll get Sinsy across,” Sneak said.

Sinsy and Ruck were agreeing, but neither seemed confident. I knew if that water was capable of boiling me, I wouldn’t want to go across on someone’s shoulders.

“From the looks of it, the water gets pretty deep. You’ll have to go on their shoulders, on unsteady terrain,” Ryker said.

He was giving them a chance to change their minds, and I was watching closely, hoping at least one of them would take him up on the offer. This was what I’d wanted from the beginning: them away from this danger.

“We’re good,” Ruck said for the both of them.

Maybe it was my imagination, but there was a flash of disappointment on Ryker’s face. He didn’t hesitate long. He turned and stepped into the river. “Don’t cross until I get to the other side.”

We all watched him cross, getting in deeper and deeper until his shoulders barely cleared the water by a couple of inches. I wasn’t sure I breathed until he got across the hundred-foot expanse.

It was as if it hit us all at the same time. Sneak was too short to get Sinsy across, even squatting on his shoulders. He was at least four inches shorter than Burn and five or so shorter than Ryker.

“I’m too short to get her across without her getting burned,” Sneak said. He was devastated.

“Maybe we should all turn around and you guys should go back to the—”

Sinsy was shaking her head before I’d finished my sentence. “Absolutely not.”

Burn patted her on the shoulder. “Bugs, you go across. I’ll bring Ruck and then come back for Sinsy.”

Out of the five of us on this side of the bank, I was the only one who didn’t seem on board with the new plan.

Ryker gave me a signal that the other side was clear, but I stalled. “Maybe we should worm it.”

Sinsy shook her head and waved her hand. “This will be a breeze. We don’t need the worm.”

They all stared at me as if to say, Get going. It was a river. A funny one, but not the end of the world. I nodded and headed in.

I was on my tiptoes and bouncing off the bottom by the time I hit the middle of the river. The current was pushing me farther downstream as I pushed forward. Ryker stood on the bank, at the ready to jump in after me.

“I got this,” I yelled, feeling better as the ground rose and I made it past the halfway point. Moving quicker now, I grabbed the stick Ryker held out to me. Then he wrapped his hand around my wrist and pulled me the rest of the way out.

I’d just gotten to dry land when I heard one of the scariest sounds you could hear in these parts. It was a horde of chewers. They’d been wolves once upon a time, until the War of 810 had turned them into something much fiercer. I’d heard them before on the outskirts of the Ruined Forest, but they didn’t usually leave the woods.

I spun, trying to determine where the sound was coming from, and saw one burst from the forest across the bank. The last of our group was quickly surrounded as a pack of twelve emerged. They would’ve looked like regular wolves except for the fangs that hung down twice as long as they should. The eyes glowed red, and they swiped with claws coming out of their paws.

“Get in the water,” Ryker screamed across the bank, already heading back across to help them.

They all turned, backs to us to face the chewers. “Hurry!” I screamed as I jumped in myself, Ryker ahead of me.

Burn was using his flame to ward them off as Sneak slashed his sword. Sinsy let an arrow fly, but it fell short. Ruck was squatting down, dagger in hand. They all were backing toward the water.

Water that had grown a lot warmer since I’d first crossed. It wasn’t quite burning yet, but it was becoming uncomfortable.

“Go back,” Ryker yelled to me.

He must’ve felt it too. But I couldn’t go back. Not with them stuck on the other side. If I could just get to Burn, we could torch the chewers like we had our other attackers.

I watched as Burn held a flame up, trying to get Ruck on his shoulders while still keeping the chewers at bay. Sinsy was behind Sneak.

And then the current kicked up. I’d barely made it the first time, and we must have been getting to high tide.

I slipped and went under. When my head bobbed back up, I was a good ten feet farther down the stream and Ryker had changed directions, heading toward me.

“Help them,” I tried to yell, but I went under again. I tried to inch toward the shore with everything I had, the water becoming uncomfortably warm. I didn’t know if I was going to drown or boil to death first.

A strong arm pulled me up, heaving me along. We crashed to the shore, the skin on my legs stinging.

When Ryker didn’t rush back in, I knew I wasn’t going to like what I saw. I glanced upstream to see Burn and Ruck standing there, bent over and clearly exhausted. Sneak was just coming out of the water, and my stomach knotted at the anguished expression he had.

There was no Sinsy. I scoured the water and didn’t see her, but I saw the pack of chewers on the other side, all gathered around, a limp hand extended out. They were eating her.

I got to my feet and would’ve run right back into the water if Ryker hadn’t latched on to my wrist.

“She’s already dead,” Ryker said. “It’s too late.”

He was right. There wasn’t even a moan or a twitch of her limb.

He let go of me and I fell to my knees, emptying my breakfast. It wasn’t that I was a stranger to death, or even killing. But this was Sinsy, my family. She was like a sister to me. She’d only come because of me.

“Why did you come back for me? I was fine. I could’ve made it.” And even if I hadn’t, maybe Sinsy would still be here. I couldn’t seem to get up. Just stayed there, kneeling with my palms flat on the ground.

“No, you wouldn’t have.”

“I’m half dead anyway. Even if I can break Bedlam’s ward, the Debt Collector might kill me anyway. You saved me because of Bedlam.”

His eyes narrowed, and I wasn’t sure why that hit a nerve, but I’d finally riled him. “You want to rage against me because your friend died, go ahead. I’d make the same choice another fifty times.”

He walked away.

Sneak made his way to the bank and collapsed to his knees.

Ryker stopped in front of him and laid a hand on his shoulder, and I heard Sneak say, “I lost sight of her for one second and they had her. I couldn’t get them off her. They ripped her throat out.” The last sentence was gravelly, as if it tore at his insides.

“It’s not your fault.”

Sneak’s head dropped, and he stayed like that. I turned away when I couldn’t bear seeing his pain anymore. Coupled with mine, it was too much to bear.

I was leaning against a tree when Ruck walked over and sat beside me, taking my hand in his and gripping it hard. The pain he was feeling, the agony he held back, was in the strength of that grip.

I wasn’t going to cry. No. Even if I wanted to curl up in a ball and wail for days. I’d let her down. I should’ve refused to go once Ruck and Sinsy decided to come along. But I hadn’t. Deep down, I’d been happy to have my people with me.

“It’s not your fault. It’s not his, either. Sinsy made her own choices.”

I didn’t say anything because I couldn’t. If I let loose right now, I might explode, and I didn’t know what I’d say or do. I was barely holding it together.

His eyes went to my ankles. “What happened to your legs?”

I ran a hand over the blisters. By the time we’d taken our last steps out, the water had felt like it was boiling. “Apparently magic only keeps the water cool for so long.”