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CHAPTER

TEN

Temra cleans the claw marks for me in the privacy of the tent, neither of us saying a word. After, we all sit around the fire, Temra and Kellyn with their weapons unsheathed, prepared should the few wolves that fled decide to return.

Kellyn has thankfully donned another shirt.

I tell him, “Thank you for saving us. That was quick thinking about the torch.”

“Have I earned my keep, then?”

“I’d say so.”

A silence follows, and I feel the need to fill it, but I have nothing to say. Discomfort spreads over me like a scratchy cloak.

“We need to have a discussion about following orders when we’re under threat like that,” Kellyn says. “I need you all to listenif I’m to do my job properly. Strangely, the scholar was the only one who obeyed.”

“I knew I could help,” Temra says defensively.

“And now that I know you can, I will use that knowledge next time I give orders.” Kellyn turns his gaze to me expectantly.

“I’m not about to stay behind if Temra is in the thick of danger. If I hadn’t pushed her away, that wolf would’ve—” I cut off, unable to finish the thought.

“So it’s better that you were hurt instead of her?” Kellyn asks.

Temra says over the top of him, “You shouldn’t have thrown yourself at me. That was reckless.”

“I’m stronger than you are,” I say simply. She couldn’t very well have held her own against a wolf barehanded. I barely did—and only for a short amount of time at that. Any longer, and it would have had me if Kellyn hadn’t intervened.

Another silence.

“Regardless of how stupid it was, it was very impressive,” Kellyn offers. “I’ve never seen anyone wrestle a wolf like that.”

The compliment startles me, and I have no idea how to respond to it.

“Had I known we were all ignoring the mercenary’s sage advice to stay in our tents, I would have come out to help,” Petrik says, sounding somewhat embarrassed.

“I had my hands full enough keeping these two out of trouble,” Kellyn says. “You should be proud that you’re such a good listener.”

I ignore the men, instead focusing on my brave sister. She was amazing tonight. I was so scared for her, but I realize nowthat we’re safe, and in spite of everything—“I’m glad you know how to fight.”

“Really?” she asks, her eyes looking to me with something akin to hope.

“I always want you safe. That is more important to me than anything else. I’m sorry I reacted poorly, and in the future”—I let a hint of sternness creep into my voice—“I expect you to tell me things.”

“I promise.”

We ought to be exhausted while traveling the next day, but the attack has made all of us hyperaware of our surroundings. I haven’t been able to calm down from full alertness yet.

Still, I need a distraction from the constant terror of wolf mauling.

“Petrik, what do you know of other magic users in the world today?” I ask, hoping to move the conversation in such a way as to help me figure out what to do with Secret Eater.

Petrik is delighted by the question. “Though I’m sure there are many magic users in the world who keep their abilities a secret, there’s only one other who is widely known like you are: the cotton spinner. While you take the ores from the land and shape them into magicked weapons, she takes the plants of the earth and spins them into illusions.”

I’ve heard stories of cloaks of invisibility and masks of disguise. The merchants and mercenaries who pass through our city bring many exciting tales. I don’t hear them myself, of course. I hear them secondhand from Temra.

What I hadn’t expected was that there were only two of us who advertised our abilities. I thought surely there must be more, even if I hadn’t heard of them before.