The food never made it into Eveth’s mouth.

The blonde woman slowly lowered her spoon back into the bowl.

“Where?”

Fyga wagged her finger. “Nope, not until I get some guarantees.”

“I guarantee that I’ll separate your head from your body if you don’t tell us.” Val pointed her sword back at the Touched woman.

“Threats need to be believable.” Fuga turned to me. “Ginger needs to work on her tactics. She’s too pure to kill a Human.”

I smirked as I watched the rage build in Val’s eyes. “She’s killed plenty of Humans.” I thought back to what she’d done to the men that had killed her sister. They’d been ordered to kill her and at night, it was hard to tell the two of them apart. Sera had been sleeping in Val’s bed, so the assassins hadn’t thought twice about possibly having the wrong woman. They’d painfully paid for that mistake.

The look on Fyga’s face was priceless.

“Oh.” The blue-eyed Touched turned in her chair and slowly raised her hands. “All I want is protection.”

“Protection?” Val gritted her teeth.

“Yes.” Fyga swallowed. “It’s a dangerous world out there for a girl without an army.” She made a disgusted face. “Never could get used to the brain-dead things.”

“You could have run anywhere.” My mind was spinning. “You’d only need protection if something was chasing you.” I held up my hand as she turned to me. “Besides us. Because we weren’t looking for you.”

“I’ve made a few enemies along the way…” Fyga sighed. “Some people from back home caught wind of the cure and came down to get rid of it themselves.” She paused. “They got there after the attack started and watched everything go down. When I ran, one of them chased me south.” A smile crossed her face. “The crocs ate good.”

She just reaffirmed why eating carnivores was a very bad idea.

Seeing the shy researcher that I’d been introduced to a few days ago acting so flippant and talking about murder was quite a dramatic change. It was taking a little bit of getting used to, but I filed that away for later. Right now, we had more important things to sort.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“What you’re saying is that there is a completely different set of Touched out there that want you dead?” I tried to summarize what she’d admitted. “And you want us to fight them for you?”

“Isn’t that what you do?” Fyga batted her eyes at me.

“We have a kid with us.” Val growled. “I’m not painting a target on our backs that could get him killed.”

“Roughness.” The black-haired woman sang the word as she turned in her seat. “The moment they saw me talk with you, a fight was inevitable.” She grinned. “They really don’t want the Bokor to know about them.”

“Why you...!” Val grabbed the shorter woman by the throat and yanked her out of the chair. “Is that why you’re here? To sic them on us?”

“They saw you…” Fyga wheezed. “In Gher!”

Val released the goggled woman, who fell to the floor on her hands and knees, coughing as she tried to breathe.

“They were in Gher?” I tried to think back. The only strange person I’d seen had been the man with pointed ears. “Where?”

“You weren’t paying attention.” Fyga dropped her right leg so that she could slide into a sitting position.

She could be right. As chaotic as the fight had been, I’d really only been focused on the fight in front of me.

“What do we do now?” I stood up and walked around the table so I could see the woman on the floor. I looked at Val. I knew Zombies, but I was learning that there was a lot more about the world around them that I didn’t know.

“What about Master James?” Val put her sword away.

“The other Bokor?” The short woman shrugged. “That’s probably why they haven’t attacked you yet. You’re going the other way.”

There was a group of Touched that didn’t want the Bokor to know they existed that thought that Master James was on his way to the island to report about them. I felt the urge to leave right away, but even if I ran, we’d walked for two days in the opposite direction. By the time I could catch up to him, he should have been to the island. There was no way to get to him in time. I just had to hope that he would be able to handle himself.

“Do we warn him?” Eveth’s spoon clanked as she dropped it into the empty bowl in front of her.

“We’d never make it.” I shook my head.

Val nodded in agreement. “We need to prepare for them.” She grabbed the front of Fyga’s shirt and lifted her to her feet. “And you’re going to help.”

“Does this mean I get a sword?” The short woman grinned.

“NO!” Val and Eveth shouted together.

“But I wouldn’t be much of an apprentice without a weapon.” The assassin pouted.

“I’m sure you have plenty of weapons hidden on you.” She’d used blades of ice to kill people in Gher, so even if we took all of her weapons, she’d still be able to make more with her magic.

“A girl had to ask.” Fyga shrugged.

“If we’re going to be protecting you.” I glared at her. “Tell us what you know about the missing ships.”