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T he rations they gave us were similar to the MREs my father’s church had stocked in a back room. They handed them out during natural disasters if there was a mass power outage and no one could cook. You could heat them up by activating the little packet.

There wasn’t a huge variety, but I wasn’t a picky eater. I grabbed anything. I knew what hangry looked like. Lucian was prickly when he wasn’t hungry, but he was downright hangry right now…and refused to eat.

Lucian had pulled all the rations out of the rucksack and was staring at it pretty hard like he could transfigure them into something different. Maybe we could do that one day, but Khalid was the only one of us who knew who he was and he didn’t have his magic yet.

“Mate, it’s camping. You aren’t going to have a chef cooking your ponce arse a five-star meal. Pick something or starve. This isn’t the time to be spoiled.”

“I’m not spoiled,” Lucian snapped. “I’m starving and I can’t figure out what I want to eat.”

“Want me to pick?” Khalid asked.

“Yes. And I promise, I’m not usually like this. I always know what I want and have no problem making up my mind about things. This is probably some kind of magic thing, but that’s messing with me, too, because I’m a very logical person and didn’t believe in magical until an owl flew out a magic hole and bit me.”

“If you tell me what you saw, I might be able to tell you what it means,” Khalid said. “Religions fascinate me and I’ve studied many of them.”

“No! Because I know where my mind went and I don’t need yours going there, too.”

“Are you keeping secrets, Pookie?” Liam asked.

“I don’t even like you,” Lucian said, taking a savage bite of his lasagna without even heating it up. “This tastes like garbage.”

He kept eating, though. He ate like a man who hadn’t eaten in days. I was pretty sure this was some kind of magical hunger, but I got in trouble when I tried to check out books from the library on Greek and Egyptian mythology, so I didn’t know the first thing about Romanian gods and culture. My year of European history at my private school was very much the America Fuck Yeah version.

I checked my app and the label on the MRE.

“Want my cake?” I said, offering it to Lucian.

He was eyeing it like he wanted to snatch it and inhale it, but he didn’t take it. Technically, after all the walking we’d done, I could have eaten it, but I thought Lucian really needed it and wouldn’t take it otherwise. And if he did, Liam might hurt him if he thought I could eat it.

“I can’t take your food.”

“You can if I’m offering it because I can’t eat it right now and you’ve got some weird magical hunger going on right now.”

“You could save it for later.”

I shrugged and pushed it at him again.

“I read the label. I’d have to make some serious adjustments to be able to eat this, and it’s not worth it for this kind of cake during magical trials.”

“Just eat it. You’re an annoying prat when you aren’t hungry,” Liam said.

“Liam,” I warned. “Now that we’ve stopped to eat, let’s get to know each other. We don’t know anyone else here. I’ll start. I grew up thinking my father was the pastor of a mega church. He was awful and kicked me out when I turned eighteen because I didn’t want to marry his friend’s son and be a pastor’s wife. Headmaster Mykene said he didn’t sire me, so I don’t actually know who my father is. You’re the first people I’ve told except for Khalid.”

Liam shrugged.

“I’m still willing to stab him for you.”

“Not necessary.”

“My Baba is amazing. Both my parents are. They are supportive and let me find my own path. My Baba is ENP, but he supported me studying history.”

“ENP?” I asked.

“Egyptian National Police.”

Liam jumped up like he was on fire.

“Shit, your Da’s a cop? You never met me. If you’re thinking of saying you saw me, I can make a shiv out of a tampon and icing sugar.”

“No, you can’t,” Lucian scoffed.

“I’d love to prove it, you ponce.”

“No stabbing. We’re all on the same team,” I pointed out.

“My Baba is a cop. I’m not and I don’t tell him everything. He also has no jurisdiction here, so you don’t need to kill anyone with a tampon.”

“But it’s my favorite,” Liam sulked.

“Fess up. I told you my mom cheated with a stranger. Why are you so stabby?”

“It’s all I know. I’m more interested in knowing why Lucian is such a gobshite.”

Liam clearly didn’t want to talk about his past and I’d never force him. Lucian didn’t seem to want to, either, but I had a feeling he didn’t really care for conversations like this and wanted it to mean something when he revealed tidbits about himself. He just rolled his eyes.

“My Tata is the king of a small region in the Carpathian Mountains that still has royalty. I’m one of the spares and I’m still furious they allowed me to be kidnapped because everyone keeps trying to kidnap me because I’m smarter than my brothers. They know how I feel about being kidnapped.”

“Maybe they wanted to get rid of you. I know I would,” Liam said.

“That’s mean,” I said.

“Apparently, my line has several reincarnations in it. It’s some family secret that’s better kept than the fact that my Tata is bisexual and my parents are in a throuple.”

“Don’t kink shame.”

“I’m not. I think they have the right idea. If one partner is busy or isn’t interested in something, the other might be. Honestly, I think monogamy isn’t for everyone and more people should look into other options.”

“Nice,” Liam said, looking like his opinion of Lucian had changed a slight bit.

“We’d better get the tent set up and get some sleep. We’re about four miles from the marker where the crystal is. No one has jumped in our path yet, but they will. It’s another eight miles to the next quadrant,” Khalid said.

Khalid and Liam took over setting up camp since they knew what they were doing. Lucian came and sat with me.

“You didn’t have to give me your food.”

“I wasn’t going to eat it. I’ve had something similar during extended power outages and I don’t like it. You needed it more. I’m pretty sure you’re so hungry because it’s a hint.”

“I hope not,” he muttered, leaving.

Whatever Lucian saw must have been truly awful.