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"I —"

"Just watch where you're walking next time." Sheshook her head, then stormed past me, her stomach letting out a loud growl.

I froze, and all thoughts vanished from my mind. "Have you —"

She rounded on me, finger held out like a weapon. "Don't eventhinkabout asking me if I ate. You're my stupid babysitter, not my friend —remember?"

I slammed my lips closed and glared at her.

Damn wolf and its damn irrational need to constantly feed the woman.

"I remember."

She eyed me for a moment, then shook her head and resumed her trek to the showers, muttering about stupid bond magic and assholes under her breath.

"Meet me outside in thirty," I yelled, glaring at her back.

She didn't even look back before rounding the corner.

"I know you heard me, Witch. It wasn't a request."

I crushed the clothes in my arms and stormed into my new room, cursing myself under my breath as I slammed the door behind me.

What was Frexinthinking,removing her collar and putting us together like this?! If Kaiya drug this out, I might fully lose —

No.I wouldn't even consider it. I was in control. I wouldstayin control.

Running my hand through my cropped hair, I pulled off the towel and slumped onto the end of my bed.

My gaze caught on the small metallic cogs sitting abandoned atop a cloth on the table across from me.

I'd set them back up when I moved into this room, but it was pointless and I knew it.

I couldn't count the number of times I'd tried to put that damn watch together over the past months. Before meeting the Witch, I'd have had it disassembled and reassembled a dozen times over that first day.

But now …

Damnit!The towel tore between my hands.

Dropping the shreds, I hung my head.I hadn't even realized I was tugging on it …

I just — I needed to get through this mission and then get away from the Witch. Then maybe I'd have the space and time to find myself again …

Forty minutes later, I led the way to the prison camp nestled deeper within the fortress city — trying once more to ignore the way the bond was responding to the Witch's close proximity.

She walked at my side, munching on one of those muffins I'd gotten her that first day. The wolf preened — distant, but there in the back of my mind — pleased that we'd correctly guessed the type of muffin she preferred.

Everything about that pissed me off, but the wolf wasn't fighting me for once, so for the moment, Icould relax … a little.

A guard motioned for us to move through the gate and into the fenced-in zone that was the prison camp.

I'd seen pictures of it before — a street lined with homes built into the cliffs, and an open area square. But now the red-stone buildings were either crumbling or piles of rubble.

From the burn marks and chunks of mech scattered around, Frexin's forces had fought the dragon rider villagers here, and the battle had destroyed the place.

She'd done to this city what a thousand years of erosion could not. And now the once-residents were relegated to living in small tents. They filled the open square in lines radiating from a couple larger tents in the middle, one with a hand-drawn sign labeling it the Mess Hall, and the other, the Med Tent.

As we entered, a bite of sadness seeped into me through the bond.